Rumor: Eric Staal headed back to the Hurricanes?

We’re less than a week away from the NHL’s February 25th trade deadline and things are heating up! There are no shortage of rumors surrounding Columbus Blue Jackets pending unrestricted free agents Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, as well as fellow pending UFAs Matt Duchene, Matt Stone and Ryan Dzingel of the Ottawa Senators. 

One pending UFA that we haven’t heard in trade talks yet though is forward Eric Staal of the Minnesota Wild. Last week David Pagnotta of the Fourth Period reported that Staal is receiving “significant interest” from “some top teams” and could be on the move prior to February 25th.

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No doubt that the 35 year old center could help out a LOT of teams in their playoff push. The big pivot has a solid 17 goals and 37 points in 58 games with the Wild this season, but put up 42 goals and 76 points just a season ago.

Earlier today NHL insider Elliotte Friedman connected the dots between the Wild and Staal’s former team, the Carolina Hurricanes. Could we see a reunion between Staal and the Canes?

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I’m not sure if Minnesota would be willing to trade with Carolina again, since initial returns on the Nino Niederreiter/Victor Rask swap aren’t favourable. But if Don Waddell really wanted to whip up a frenzy, taking a run at Eric Staal would do it.

Now THAT would be a crowd pleasing move in Carolina. Maybe it would even create enough buzz to enable them to knock off their ridiculous post-game celebrations…

I mean… what a bunch of jerks.