Adams adds “productive, intelligent” centerman in Staal

For his first trade as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, Kevyn Adams turned to a familiar face. 

Adams was an alternate captain on the Carolina Hurricanes team that won the Stanley Cup in 2006, a run Sabres fans know well. Eric Staal was 22 and coming off a 100-point season. The two were teammates again the following year, which saw Staal make his first All-Star team. 

The Sabres general manager remembered the intangibles that Staal – who, at 35, made his sixth All-Star team with the Minnesota Wild last season – brought to those Hurricanes teams when he made the decision to acquire the veteran centerman in exchange for Marcus Johansson on Wednesday. 

“There [are] very few players in the league that, just from what they’ve done on and off the ice, command the respect and have the presence that an Eric Staal does,” Adams said. “He fits in that small group of people. So, I think it’s a great thing for our locker room, it’s great for our organization. 

“He’s a winner. He’s been there. He’s been in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. He’s raised the trophy. I mean, these are really, really important experiences that he’s lived and he’s going to bring into our locker room.”

The potential impact of Staal on the Sabres is twofold. It represents an addition at the center position, an area Adams said he would seek to improve upon taking over as general manager in June. It also adds a resume to the dressing room rivaled by few others in the NHL.

Staal ranks among the NHL’s top seven active players in goals, points, and games played. He ranks 11th in assists, with 585. He’s tallied 51 points in 62 career playoff games. Just last month, he was centering Minnesota’s top line in an opening-round series against Vancouver. 

He joins a group of centermen headlined by Jack Eichel, Buffalo’s 23-year-old captain. Staal, too, was a young captain, receiving the honor for Carolina at 25. Others in the mix for roster spots at center include Casey Mittelstadt, Rasmus Asplund, and 2019 first-round pick Dylan Cozens, all of whom are 22 or younger.

“The underrated part of an Eric Staal in your dressing room and if Dylan Cozens is on our roster is just the ability to be with him every day and to learn from him, not just on the ice but off the ice as well,” Adams said. 

But Staal is more than a just a sage presence in the dressing room. He missed just four games during his four seasons with Minnesota. He scored 111 goals during that span, 81 of which came at even strength. That latter mark ranks 21st in the NHL during that span. 

Last season, Staal’s per-60 rates at 5-on-5 for points (2.0) and primary assists (0.83) would have led the Sabres. His .90 goals-per-60 at 5-on-5 would have ranked third on the team behind Jeff Skinner and Eichel. 

Staal finished last season with 47 points (19+28) in 66 games, all marks that would rank among the top three Sabres forwards. He’s two years removed from a 76-point season in which he scored 42 goals. 

He could be a factor on the power play, too. His ice time with the extra man in 2019-20 ranked second among Wild forwards, behind fellow veteran Zach Parise. 

Adams listed all the ways he expects Staal to impact the Sabres on the ice. 

“He’s still a very productive player, very smart, big body, understands both ends of the ice, understands how to play, has played a lot of hockey in his career against top, top matchups,” Adams said. “He’s a guy that has always had a knack around the net for putting himself in spots to be successful. 

“He’s very good on the power play. He’s long, and even as a young player, back when he was first coming into the league, he had the ability to hang onto pucks and make the players around him better. So those are all the things as I watched him closely recently and a lot of his games, I saw a lot of the same things. He’s very intelligent – a very, very intelligent hockey player.

Adams said he had a good first conversation with Staal after the trade was announced. He expects a longer, more in-depth conversation to take place along with coach Ralph Krueger soon. In the meantime, Adams will continue to navigate an unprecedented offseason.  

“We’re all in this interesting place,” Adams said. “It’s unique, and no one’s ever been through this before. It’s been extremely busy in terms of conversations. There’s a lot to be excited for coming up with the draft, but then there’s still the Stanley Cup playoffs going. Not every team is even in their offseason yet.”

It all makes for an unpredictable situation. In Staal, the Sabres have a player they can count on.