Maybe this is Jeff Gorton’s first official year as general manager of the Rangers, but the same perennial win-now mindset remains.
Although Gorton hardly went and sold the farm for an annual run at a Stanley Cup, he made the biggest splash of the trade-deadline season by acquiring forward Eric Staal from the Hurricanes on Sunday in exchange for second-round picks in 2016 and 2017, along with Finnish prospect Aleksi Saarela.
Staal, 31 and the older brother of Rangers defenseman Marc Staal, waived his no-trade clause to join forces on Broadway. The Hurricanes also ate the maximum 50 percent of Staal’s pro-rated $8.25 million salary, allowing the Blueshirts to squeeze under the salary cap.
Staal is going to be an unrestricted free agent after this season, but Gorton said he was not granted permission to start negotiating prior to the trade. Although Gorton added he thinks Staal “is still a young player, in our mind has some years left,” this is being viewed as a rental that hopefully yields the franchise’s first championship since 1994.
“We’re acquiring him to make our team better today and see where it takes us,” Gorton said on a conference call. “Then going forward, we hope it works out real well for both and we’ll talk then. For now, he’s a Ranger today and we’ll see what happens.”
Staal is set to suit up for the Blueshirts as they play host to John Tortorella and the Blue Jackets on Monday night at the Garden. With the trade deadline arriving at 3 p.m., it should make for an interesting day.
For one, Gorton said he would not rule out adding another “small-salary player, if we wanted to,” he said.
But this is the big piece, with Staal having won a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006 to go with Olympic and World Championship experience. In 43 career playoff games, he has 19 goals — a far cry from the current Rangers’ forward group and their lack of postseason production.
At 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, Staal brings the skill of a five-time 30-goal scorer in the regular season, who was slumping this year while playing with his other brother in the NHL, Jordan, and the woebegone Hurricanes. With just 10 goals and 33 points in 63 games, Eric is on pace for his worst statistical season since his rookie year of 2003-04.
But this is the big piece, with Staal having won a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006 to go with Olympic and World Championship experience. At 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, Staal also brings the skill of a five-time 30-goal scorer, who was slumping this season while playing with his other brother, Jordan, and the woebegone Hurricanes. With just 10 goals and 33 points in 63 games, Eric is on pace for his worst statistical season since his rookie year of 2003-04.
“We’re looking at a player that we think could be energized by this trade,” Gorton said. “We see the numbers, we scouted him a lot, I think we know the player as well as anybody. We think, we put him into our team, surrounded by some of the pieces we have, we’re going to get a lot out of him and he’s going to be energized to come to New York and play for the Rangers.”
There is no question that a big part of Staal waiving his no-trade clause was to come and play with his brother in a familiar environment. The clause also created a limited market, and enabled Gorton to acquire the top forward out there without surrendering a first-round pick — as Carolina general manager Ron Francis was reportedly looking for.
Instead, the Rangers gave up Saarela, a 19-year-old center who was a third-round pick in 2015 and playing in his native Finland. Staying with the Rangers are all the young forwards currently on the roster, with Chris Kreider, Oscar Lindberg and others having been possible pieces of interest.
And now there are two Staals in New York, the newest way the Rangers are going all in on another Stanley Cup run.
“We felt like he was one of the best — if not the best — player available on the market to give us what we’re looking for in our top nine,” Gorton said. “That’s why we made the move. I think it’ll help him, he probably knows a lot of players on our team because of Marc. At the end of the day, we didn’t feel like bringing him in because of what Marc’s doing.
“It’s all about Eric.”