Carolina Hurricanes captain Eric Staal is becoming an unrestricted free agent before the beginning of next season, and the way the Canes are playing now has a direct impact on whether the organization will move forward with him. It is important to note that Staal has a no-movement clause in his contract, which gives him plenty of negotiating power.
"We talked about how he wanted to handle it. We put everything out on the table that day, and we're not talking about it again," coach Bill Peters said, regarding Staal's free agency on Sept. 17, according to Sportsnet's Luke Fox. "If he ever wants to come into my office and talk about it, I'm here for him. He knows that."
GM Ron Francis, however, has the final say in what is to happen with the 31-year-old star. He has already been conferring with Staal's agent, Rick Curran, although apparently not about the player's future.
"We touched base last month and agreed to touch base towards the end of this month to see where things were," Francis said. "So, we haven't had that conversation yet. There's still six weeks until we get to the deadline. Hopefully we're still in the [playoff] hunt," according to ESPN's Pierre LeBrun.
Curran confirmed the conversations, but also stated that "Ron suggested he'd prefer we wait until some time toward the end of January when he hoped to be in a better position to have a more meaningful discussion," according to LeBrun. It is likely Francis is waiting to see how the playoff picture will look by then.
The options Carolina may take with Staal are to possibly re-sign him with a pay-cut from his $8.25 million cap hit, ask him to waive his no-movement clause and trade him for some assets, hold onto him for a playoff push even if they are unable to re-sign him, or simply having him play out the rest of the season.
The past three seasons have not been good to the former All-Star MVP, as he currently has 28 points in 47 games, and is on pace for only 49 points at the end of the season, his lowest since his rookie season.
GM Francis may be looking at the bigger picture though, focusing on young talent to help the team succeed for the next few seasons. Justin Faulk, Noah Hanifin, Brett Pesce and Jacob Slavin have all developed faster than expected, and have become important parts of the team. What does this means for a declining center in Eric Staal, we will have to wait until the end of January for talks to resume.
