Last night in Pittsburgh, Eric Staal led the Wild to a very solid road victory against the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins. Staal scored the game winner in the third, added two assists, was a +3, had 6 shots on goal, and won 15 of 25 face-offs. In order to win in the NHL, your best players must be your best players and last night Staal led the way and Devan Dubnyk back stopped the Wild making 39 saves yielding just two powerplay goals to the high powered Penguin attack.
To say that Eric Staal has been good fit in Minnesota, is certainly understating what he means to the success of the Wild. Many experts criticized Chuck Fletcher for committing three years to Staal, but it was a move that he had to make. The Wild have never had a number one center and Staal was the only free agent on the market that came close to fitting that bill.
The last three seasons for Staal have seen his offensive production decline from his perennial point a game status that was the norm over his first nine NHL seasons. There are of course the obvious signs that the decline in numbers is due to the fact that Staal is now at age 32 on the wrong side of the 30 number in a young man's NHL. There also is the fact that he was playing with a very young and transitioning Carolina Hurricanes team that was looking to a future which would not include Eric Staal. The trade deadline deal last season that sent Staal to the New York Rangers did not pan out well for either Staal or the Rangers as he could not establish himself as a top line center and was relegated to a bottom six winger.
We as fans of pro sports and athletes, are so quick to criticize a player for declining statistics, yet we often dismiss it as the player just isn't good enough any longer. In a lot of cases that is true, but there are also the cases where the circumstances play a role in how the player's numbers decline. We don't have to look very far to recognize this fact, exhibit A, Devan Dubnyk. For Dubnyk the Wild have been THE perfect fit, when his career was hanging by a thread.
For Eric Staal, the Wild offered the best solution for his career. For the Wild, Eric Staal offered the best solution for their need of a top line center. The decline in statistical numbers for Staal, made him available at 3.5 million per year. Yes they are on the hook for three seasons but this is not Thomas Vanek we are talking about.
Staal now has nine points in the Wild's last seven games, and five goals and eleven points total, playing in all key situations. Eric Staal is also a leader something that has also been missing in the Wild locker room. Yes, Wild captain, Mikko Koivu leads by example night in and night out, and assistants Ryan Suter and Zach Parise are leaders on the ice as well. But what this team has lacked in the past is that leadership that brings the team together. That is a quality that Staal brings to Minnesota. So even if his numbers decline through the remainder of his contract, his presence will more than make up for it as the next generation of Wild players learn how to conduct themselves, from a winner.