This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the Carolina Hurricanes this season. This article will focus on Jordan Staal.
Despite never really becoming a scoring center who could add a lot of offense for the Hurricanes, prior to this season, Staal was still good for hitting 45 points and providing secondary scoring on a consistent basis, along with being a great two-way forward.
This season was Staal’s worst as a member of the Hurricanes, despite a solid end to the year, where he scored eight points in his last 12 games. He was on pace to score just 10 goals and about 33 points, yet he averaged the third-most ice time of any forward on the Hurricanes and more ice time per game at even strength than Andrei Svechnikov. I'm aware that's comparing minutes of a center to those of a winger but the point here is that Staal was overused while not being able to add much offense.
He’s still a key part of the penalty kill, where he plays nearly two and a half minutes per game but his scoring is now way down from where it was. With the addition of Vincent Trocheck, Staal should be assuming a bottom-six role and with the emergence of Morgan Geekie as well, there’s at least a possibility that Staal could slide out of the top-nine down the road.
He may be the captain but at 31 years old, it seems as though Staal is on the decline. He still has three years remaining on his contract at $6 million per year and if the Hurricanes end up being able to use a compliance buyout, Carolina needs to consider using it on Staal. He may still be a solid member of the bottom-six but Staal’s play doesn't warrant his contract.
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted Saturday):
If the Hurricanes are granted a compliance buyout, do they use it on Jordan Staal?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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