Eric Staal trade rumors: Rangers still showing interest

But if Eric Staal waives his no-trade clause, he will immediately become the biggest name in the trade sweepstakes leading up to Monday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline, especially after Winnipeg shipped captain Andrew Ladd to Chicago on Thursday night.

In exchange for the 31-year-old center, the Hurricanes received second-round selections in the 2016 and 2017 National Hockey League entry drafts as well as Finnish prospect Aleksi Saarela.

The 31-year-old has done a solid job driving play in 2014-15, made evident by his 5.89 relative Corsi for percentage-tops on the Hurricanes when he departed.

The trade leaves goalie Cam Ward — who earned the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2006 as the franchise won its only Stanley Cup — as the only Hurricane left from any of the club’s playoff teams. On the other hand, he has yet to score a game-winning goal this season, and he didn’t get any in a 79-game, 2013-14 season.

As for NY, pairing up two of the three Staal brothers is a power move to make it back to the Stanley Cup this year after missing out on a repeat visit last season. Otherwise, he has to hold the Rangers’ feet to the fire and squeeze as much as he can out of them to part with the captain and face of the franchise. Assuming Rick Nash is fully healthy – and the Rangers making this move sort of hints they think he will be – Staal will no longer have to be the main source of offense on his team.

The awkward part is Eric would have to leave Jordan – who was traded to Carolina from Pittsburgh in June, 2012 – in order to play with him.

The Eric Staal trade is an immediate win for the Rangers. Any hockey fan can tell you that a hot goaltender can make all the difference in a seven-game series, and any Rangers fan can tell you that Lundqvist represents the Rangers’ best chance of bringing home a Stanley Cup.

The Rangers are reportedly in pursuit of Eric Staal. “We had a couple [new] jerseys and they had them on in the room”, Staal said.

This is a deal of two sides: There’s what the Rangers got and what it cost them to get it. We’re going to break these two things down separately because they contrast pretty drastically.

Jordan Staal said his big brother “had a lot of emotions for the both of us”.

Bill Peters said after the game that the loss of Staal certainly affected his team. He’s going to help our leadership group, ” Vigneault said. “Hopefully down the road we’ll find a way to get together and win like we wanted”. While the Rangers once again dipped into their depleted prospect and draft pick pool to acquire a big-ticket player right before the trade deadline, the team’s management team should be commended for not caving in to the Hurricanes’ demands and surrendering yet another first-round pick.