Eric Staal Excels in Florida with Family in Tow

Eric Staal had one last chance to play in the NHL, and he got it with brother Marc and the Florida Panthers. He's now thriving after a slow start.

While golfing with his three brothers at Pebble Beach during the first hours of free agency last summer, Eric Staal wasn’t expecting to hear from an NHL team that day.

But he did.

It all started during some downtime after a morning of hitting the links for the Staal brother quartet. First, their agent, Richard Curran, called D-man Marc Staal to inform him that the Florida Panthers were interested. Then, Curran called Eric Staal, 38, and told him Florida offered him a professional tryout (PTO).

Despite going unsigned through the 2021-22 NHL season, Staal hadn’t hung up his skates. During his first season away from the NHL in nearly 20 years, Staal regularly trained in Minnesota throughout the year, where his family remained since his Wild tenure. In February, he captained the Canadian men’s Olympic team.

After mulling it over with his family and brothers, the opportunity seemed like a no-brainer. And just like that, he and Marc digitally signed their offers while the brothers ate lunch at the clubhouse overlooking the 18th hole.

“You normally don’t see a PTO signed on Day 1 of free agency,” Staal told The Hockey News. “But for me, I knew that was the route I’d have to go to get back into the league.”

Staal knew this was his last kick at the can.

“If it didn’t work out, I would have bowed away and gone back to coaching my kids’ minor hockey teams in Minnesota,” Staal said.

After a strong training camp, Staal impressed the Panthers’ brass enough that they wanted to sign him. But Florida didn’t have room for another contract. The Panthers asked Staal if he would still skate with them sans contract indefinitely, which he was willing to do. But he wasn’t in limbo for long as an injury to Aaron Ekblad opened up a roster spot, and 11 days after being released from his PTO, Staal signed a one-year contract with Florida.

“I may not be running the first power-play unit anymore... but I can still play a valuable role in helping a team win.” - Eric Staal

Through his first 16 games of the season, Staal scored zero points while averaging 11:47 TOI/GP as the team’s fourth-line center.

“If you take a year off, it’s going to take you a while to get your game back,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

Mind you, Staal was being deployed in an unfamiliar role. The six-time NHL all-star was being asked to kill penalties and play a low-event, defensive-minded style.

“It’s not easy to just change the way your game, like that,” said Minnesota Wild forward Mats Zuccarello, Staal’s teammate with the Wild and New York Rangers. “But he’s just so driven. He’s just hungry. That’s been the key for him to be as good as he has been his whole career.”

But since the start of December, when injuries up front opened up more ice time, Staal turned back the clock. He’s recorded 13 points in his last 18 games while averaging 16:08 nightly. 

Through that same span, his 3.47 5-on-5 points per 60 minutes place him second in the league among skaters who have played at least 200 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The way he’s producing offense is much different than he did in his prime. Instead of taking the puck coast to coast and ripping it top corner, he’s generating chances by cycling and forechecking.

“I may not be running the first power-play unit anymore or getting all the touches like I was even a couple of years ago, but I can still play a valuable role in helping a team win,” Staal said.

From the Panthers’ point of view, Staal’s value goes far beyond just what he does on the ice.

Heading into the 2022-23 season, Maurice said the Panthers – who underwent major roster reconstruction this off-season – knew they needed a veteran voice like Staal to help share the leadership duties with Barkov.

“He gets respect from everyone, and it’s because of a combination of two things: his accomplishments and how he operates on a daily basis,” Maurice said. “He’s not taking practices off. He’s not taking morning skates off. He’s not lying on the table every day. He’s pushing as hard as anybody else out on the ice.

“We’ve got a lot of young players here that are looking at Eric Staal – the Stanley Cup champion and Olympian – who loves being on the ice and working hard every day. It’s just such a great mentorship for them.”

That PTO Stall signed at the golf course proved to be his chance to keep pushing hard after the sour taste in his mouth from the 2020-21 bubble season.

He not only lost in the Cup final with Montreal that year, but he was away from his family for most of a year due to COVID-19 restrictions. That’s not the way he wanted to go out.

Contrary to his last NHL season, this year has lots of family time. Staal said he’s enjoyed having his kids – aged 13, 11 and eight – around the rink and in the dressing room. Sometimes, they go on the ice after practice and skate. They’re at the age now where they’ll remember the days of hanging out in the Florida Panthers locker room.

“I remember, as a younger guy, some of the older guys having their kids do the same, and it’s just really cool that it’s come full circle at this point,” he said.

From Staal’s point of view, the Panthers allowed him to write the final chapter of his career with his family and his brother’s family.

“The more and more time they spend together, they start fighting like brothers and sisters,” Staal said of his and Marc’s kids. “But it’s all good stuff.”