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Eric Staal
Eric Staal
Position Centre
Shoots Left
Height
Weight
6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
205 lb (93 kg)
NHL Team New York Rangers
Born (1984-10-29)October 29, 1984,
Thunder Bay, ON, CAN
NHL Draft 2nd overall, 2003
Carolina Hurricanes
Pro Career 2003 – present


Eric Craig Staal (born October 29, 1984) is a Canadian ice hockey player and the captain of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League. He is the older brother of Marc Staal, who is playing for the New York Rangers, Jordan Staal, who is playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Jared Staal, who is playing for the AHL's Charlotte Checkers.

Playing career[]

Staal grew up playing minor hockey in his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario. He played AAA for the Thunder Bay Kings organization and led his Bantam team to an All-Ontario Championship in 1999-2000. After that season, Staal was selected in the 1st round (13th overall) in the 2000 OHL Priority Selection by the Peterborough Petes.

Staal was selected second overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes, behind number 1 pick Marc-André Fleury. He had played for the Peterborough Petes of the OHL the year before, scoring 98 points in 66 games.

He played his first season in the National Hockey League right after being drafted. In 2004, Staal played in the YoungStars game as part of the 2004 NHL All-Star festivities.

He was named NHL Offensive Player of the Week (October 23–30, 2005). On October 28, 2005, Staal had his first career hat trick against the Philadelphia Flyers. He led the Hurricanes in points during the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 28 points as they won the Stanley Cup. Staal was fourth in voting for the Hart Trophy, which is the award for the NHL's most valuable player.

On July 1, 2006, Staal signed a three year, $13.5 million contract with the Hurricanes.

Staal made his first All-Star game appearance in 2007 NHL All-Star game in Dallas, where he scored the Eastern Conference's third goal.

He and his younger brother Jordan Staal were members of the 2007 Canadian IIHF World Championship team that won gold in a 4-2 win against Finland in Moscow.

On January 27, 2008, at the NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta, Staal recorded 2 goals and an assist. He was also awarded the MVP award for the event.

On September 11, 2008, Staal signed a seven year, $57.75 million deal with the Hurricanes beginning in the 2009/2010 NHL season. Staal was slated to become a restricted free agent on July 1, 2009, but signed despite having 1 year at $5 million remaining on his former contract.

On April 28, 2009, Staal capped an improbable comeback by scoring the series winning goal with 31.7 seconds remaining in the seventh game of Carolina's first round series with the New Jersey Devils.

On May 8, 2009, Staal scored twice to earn 40 career postseason points and eclipse Ron Francis' franchise mark of 39.

On January 20, 2010, Staal was named team captain, replacing Rod Brind'Amour who was named an alternate captain. Staal became the fifth captain since the team relocated to Raleigh.

On January 18, 2011, Staal was named the captain of the 2011 NHL All-Star Game In Raleigh, North Carolina.

Personal life[]

Staal married his longtime girlfriend Tanya VandenBroeke on Friday August 3rd 2007. He has one son, Parker Lucas Staal, born September 22nd 2009. He and his wife are expecting their second child, due in December 2011.

Awards and achievements[]

Records[]

  • Most hat tricks in 2008–09 - 4
  • Carolina Hurricanes' franchise record for most hat tricks in a single season - 4 (2008–09)
  • Carolina Hurricanes' franchise record for most career post-season points - 43

Career statistics[]

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2000–01 Peterborough Petes OHL 63 19 30 49 23 7 2 5 7 4
2001–02 Peterborough Petes OHL 56 23 39 62 40 6 3 6 9 10
2002–03 Peterborough Petes OHL 66 39 59 98 36 7 5 9 14 6
2003–04 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 81 11 20 31 40
2004–05 Lowell Lock Monsters AHL 77 26 51 77 88 11 2 8 10 12
2005–06 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 82 45 55 100 81 25 9 19 28 8
2006–07 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 82 30 40 70 68
2007–08 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 82 38 44 82 50
2008–09 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 82 40 35 75 50 18 10 5 15 4
2009–10 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 70 29 41 70 68
2010–11 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 81 33 43 76 72
NHL totals 560 226 278 504 429 43 19 24 43 12

International play[]

Medal record
Competitor for Flag of Canada Canada
Men's ice hockey
Olympic Winter Games
Gold 2010 Vancouver Ice hockey
World Championships
Gold 2007 Moscow Ice hockey
Silver 2008 Halifax / Quebec City Ice hockey

Played for Canada in:

International statistics[]

Year Team Event   GP G A Pts PIM
2007 Canada WC 9 5 5 10 6
2008 Canada WC 8 4 3 7 6
2010 Canada Oly 7 1 5 6 6
Senior int'l totals 24 10 13 23 18

References[]

  1. Triple Gold for Eric Staal, iihf.com, 28 February 2010.

External links[]



This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Eric Staal. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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