Carolina Hurricanes: Revisiting the Full Eric Staal Trade Tree

With the Carolina Hurricanes set to face off against the New York Rangers tonight, lets revisit the seemingly never ending trade tree that sent long time captain Eric Staal to Broadway way back in 2016.

With Chicago recently shipping off former Carolina Hurricanes prospect Aleksi Saarela just as quickly as they acquired him to Florida, key pieces from the Eric Staal trade are still on the move many years later. Let us take a look at the trade tree in its entirety, paying close attention to all of the interconnected moving parts.

February 28th, 2016 then General Manager Ron Francis finally bit the bullet and traded long time Hurricanes forward and captain Eric Staal to the New York Rangers in exchange for Finnish forward prospect Aleksi Saarela and two second round picks, one in 2016 and another in 2017.

With Staal months away from becoming an UFA and the Hurricanes once again a lottery team, management saw this as an opportunity to gain some valuable future assets.

Originally thought of as a franchise player when he was drafted second overall in 2003, Staal wasn’t quite the same player he was early in his career after an easily avoidable dirty knee on knee hit in the 2013 World Championships by Alexander Edler. With only 33 points in 63 games at the time of the trade, it was clear that Eric was a player that would benefit from a change in scenery.

At first glance the return was a bit underwhelming when you look at what Staal meant to the organization. Leading the franchise in pretty much every offensive statistical category since relocation, and only behind Ron Francis when you include the Hartford Whalers years, it was safe to say Carolina was about to enter a new era of Hurricanes Hockey.

Every year there’s a lot of talk about the high prices for rentals at the trade deadline. We often see teams give up decent prospects and first rounders for a player or two that they feel is the missing piece in getting their organization over the hump, helping them finally win the elusive Stanley Cup.

More often than not, what we actually see is the newly acquired players struggle to learn their new systems, have a disappointing playoff run and then finally leave via free agency.

With that in mind many fans were disappointed to hear that, one, Staal wasn’t going to be with the Hurricanes organization any more, and two, we didn’t even manage to pry away a first rounder in the trade.

Like the Jeff Skinner trade in 2018, Eric had a no trade in his contract and if the rumors were indeed true, he was only willing to waive to play with his brother Marc on the Rangers. Since Francis’ options were limited, he had to take what he could get.

The Trade’s Role in Stealing “Turbo”

When asked about the trade, Francis cited Saarela as a “guy they really liked” and someone they felt was going to be apart of the solution here in Raleigh. The 2015 third rounder was known to be a dynamic threat in the offensive zone with one of the best, if not the best, wrist shots from his draft year. Playing in the Finnish Elite League at the time, he was putting up decent numbers against men as a teenager.

In addition to the sought after forward prospect, they also picked up two second round draft selections, one in the upcoming 2016 draft and another in 2017. With these picks the opportunity to build up a prospect pool of elite young talent was key for this deal to work out for the Hurricanes.

Staal’s time with the Rangers was both short lived and underwhelming, signing with the Minnesota Wild after putting up just six points in 25 games. The Hurricanes, on the other hand indirectly made out alright, flipping one of the picks they acquired in the trade for a key member of their current forward core, Teuvo Teravainen.

While the Hurricanes would end up using one of the second round draft picks they acquired, selecting right shot defenseman Luke Martin 52nd overall in 2017, they would end up moving the Rangers’ 2016 second rounder to Chicago just a few month after receiving it.

At a time where the Hurricanes were starting to take advantage of cap strapped teams, they stole 21 year old Teravainen in a deal where they took on Bryan Bickell and his four million dollar cap hit for one season. Since they were taking on a cap dump, they only had to send two picks Chicago’s way, the aforementioned 2016 second rounder from New York and a 2017 third rounder.

The Blackhawks would go on to select Russian winger Artur Kayumov with the 2016 second rounder, but the third had a history of being traded and would end up being on the move again. Before sending the pick back to Chicago, the Hurricanes actually came in possession of their 2017 third rounder back in September 2015.

Chicago Involved Again

In what was another deal with Chicago, their fingerprints are all over this trade tree, the Hurricanes sent AHL defenseman Dennis Robertson, recently drafted D-man Jake Massie and a 2017 fifth rounder to the Hawks in exchange for a 2017 third rounder and forwards Kris Versteeg and Joakim Nordstrom.

While Nordstorm would spend three full seasons with the Hurricanes before signing with Boston as an UFA, Versteeg’s time was much shorter. He would only play in 63 games with Carolina, the veteran winger was traded to the LA Kings in February 2016 for Valentin Zykov and a conditional pick (the conditions were not met).

Like Saarela, Zykov was thought to be a key piece for the Hurricanes’ future. Both wingers saw limited NHL action with Carolina before being on the move again. While Saarela was eventually traded, will get back to this at little later on, Zykov would be placed on waivers in November of last year.

Getting claimed by Edmonton, Zykov would quickly fall out of favor with the Oilers’ brass in his limited showing before getting placed back on waivers only a mer month later, claimed this time by Vegas.

Although Zykov’s movement currently ends here, the trade tree is far from over. The third round pick returned to Chicago in the Teravainen deal would once again change hands in February 2017, this time to Detroit. With the Blackhawks desperate for help upfront they picked up a reclamation project in Tomas Jurco, in exchange for their reacquired third round pick.

While Jurco was just ok at best for the Hawks, he did end up finding his way into the Hurricanes organization via the Florida Panthers AHL team just this past season.

In a deal that was geared to solidifying the Charlotte Checkers as the Calder Cup favorites, they sent disappointing prospect Cliff Pu to the Panthers in exchange for “future considerations” in turn Jurco would join the Checkers from the Springfield Thunderbirds, Florida’s AHL affiliate.

While we could take this time to connect the Skinner deal, since Pu was involved, we’ll just get back to the matter at hand, the 2017 third round pick constantly on the move. With Detroit now ahold of the pick they would select goaltender Keith Petruzzelli, ending this branch of the Staal trade tree for now.

While Dennis Robertson was included in the first Chicago trade, his time with the Hawks organization would be cut short. Returning to the Hurricanes, or more specifically the Checkers, just a few months after being traded in exchange for Carolina’s third net minder, Charlotte’s starter at the time, Drew Maclntyre.

The last piece sent to the Blackhawks in the Verteeg/Nordstrom deal was the 2017 fifth round pick. It was durning the draft itself that this pick would once again change hands. The Hawks sent the pick (135th overall) and an additional pick (181st overall) to Vancouver in exchange for an earlier selection (112th overall).

To connect the dots and make some sense out of all of this, Vancouver selected defenseman Kristoffer Gunnarsson with the pick that originally belonged to Carolina, in turn finishing off another branch of the Staal trade tree.

Saarela on the Move Again

Getting back to Alexsi Saarela, the once key piece in the original Eric Staal trade. Saarela would be on the move to, of course, the Chicago Blackhawks, see I told you their fingerprints are all over this trade tree. In a surprising move for both the fans and one of the players involved, Saarela was sent packing along with Calvin de Haan to the Hawks in exchange for Gustav Forsling and Anton Forsberg.

The deal was a huge head scratcher at the time for some more so for what the Hurricanes gave up rather than what they got in return, two players currently playing in the AHL. With de Haan signing a four year deal as a UFA with the Canes less than a calendar year before the trade it seemed odd to move on from him so quickly.

The other question mark was why include Saarela, someone you just traded one of the best players in your entire franchise history for not too long ago? With 55 goals in his last two seasons with Charlotte and one of the best shots in the entire American Hockey League it seemed like the 22 year old was someone you’d only want move in a bigger deal for someone you can slot in your team’s top six.

As it turns out he wasn’t happy with his role in the Hurricanes organization and demanded a trade. Depending on what you read, he may or may not have asked to be traded specially to the Blackhawks,  but either way some fans felt that we were giving up on a player of his caliber too early.

Flash forward to training camp, Saarela was quickly cut and sent to the Rockford IceHogs in the AHL. With just a single assist in five games, his time with Chicago’s organization had already came to an end. A few weeks ago, October 23rd, the Hawks would trade him to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Ian McCoshen. Saarela would directly report to the Panthers minor team in Springfield. Saarela’s trade to Florida currently concludes all the player movement from the Staal deal.

Although Saarela was a big disappointment and one of the second rounders, Luke Martin, is looking less and less likely to ever have an impact in Carolina, the Hurricanes still are winners in the deal. While most NHL trades seem individualized and separate from one another, when you look closer you can see that they sometimes are connected.

In Staal’s case, one of the assets allowed Hurricanes’ management to get a bigger and better piece when they combined it with another. Yes moving Staal didn’t directly result in getting Teuvo, but it certainly led to making the deal possible. When it’s all said and done, moves like this are a prime example of good asset management, something we’ve started to see more of lately in Carolina.