Believe it or not the Jordan Staal trade is closing in on its five year anniversary this summer. Staal was a big part of the Penguins success early on in the Crosby/Malkin era. The three center approach was very difficult to match up with and it led to back to back Stanley Cup Final appearances which was highlighted by the victory over Detroit in 2009.
Eventually he wanted a larger role and to play with his brother and that led him to decline the 10 year 60 million dollar contract the Penguins offered him. He was instead traded to Carolina where he signed an identical contract. He has been playing for the Hurricanes the past five seasons.
Since arriving in Carolina things have not gone exactly to plan. Staal wanted an expanded role that didn't include being behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The assumption was that going to another team he would be given legitimate top six minutes. For the first four years in Carolina he has not been provided the role he was expecting. Jordan does play a lot of minutes, but his quality of teammate throughout his Carolina tenure has been very poor. One could argue that Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke were better linemates than much of what he has received in Carolina. As a result he has not been a contributing member of Carolina's offense. That is until this year. Here's a snapshot at what his 5v5 points per 60 has looked throughout his career:
In Pittsburgh he produced like a high end third line player with Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke. His first four years in Carolina he was producing like a fourth liner. This season he is putting up top line numbers.
It goes without saying that when you pay a player 6M per year you are hoping that they won't produce like a fourth line player. It's easy to blame Jordan, but in this case I am going to point the finger at the organization. His quality of teammate throughout his career has been sub-optimal. Carolina paid Jordan like a top line center, but then gave him whatever scrap parts were available at the time as linemates.
His top three most common linemates are blah. Why is Nathan Gerbe his most common linemate? How does that happen?
He saw a little bit of time with his brother and Jeff Skinner, but it doesn't make up the majority of his first four years in Carolina. Quality of teammate matters and the Hurricanes felt like that didn't apply to Jordan Staal for some reason.
Despite the poor QoT he remained a possession monster.
He is in the 99th percentile(!) for possession and he does not get the credit he deserves as a defensive forward in this league. The poor offensive output has overshadowed that part of his game.
This year they finally gave him some legit skill to play with and the results have been very good. The majority of his time has come with Elias Lindholm (280:35) and Sebastian Aho (272:31). Jordan Staal not only leads the team in shot attempt percentage at 56.09% but he is also the team leader in 5v5 points per 60 at 2.05.
The Hurricanes traded for Jordan Staal to be an impact player for them. They then wasted the first four years of his Carolina tenure by not consistently providing him the proper tools to make that happen. Now in his fifth year he is finally approaching his ceiling as a player in the NHL.
Does Jordan Staal regret signing long term in Carolina? His brother has been traded, the team is a candidate for relocation, and his usage has been sorely mismanaged until this year. Only he knows the answer to that, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of regret.
Thanks for reading!
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