New York Rangers: A few more PTO candidates
Eric Staal C
Eric Staal is certainly a solid PTO candidate for the Rangers. The 36-year-old center may not be the star he once was, but he could be an intriguing option for the bottom-six. Overall, it was an interesting year for him. He started the season with the Buffalo Sabres, but was then dealt to the Montreal Canadiens. In 53 games between the two teams, he scored five goals and had 13 points. It was a notable decrease in production, as he had 47 points in 66 games the season before with the Minnesota Wild.
However, Staal had more success during Montreal’s strong postseason run. In 21 games, he scored two goals and recorded eight points, while playing on their fourth-line. That kind of production over an 82-game regular season could certainly come in handy for the Rangers. At this point in time, Kevin Rooney is expected to be their fourth-line center, but adding Staal as competition for him would make things more interesting. In terms of faceoffs, Staal was a bit better than Rooney this past season. Staal won 49% of his draws, while Rooney won just 45% of his.
Staal comes with an immense amount of overall experience. At this point of his career, he has played 1,293 career games. In them, he has 441 goals, 593 assists and 1,034 points. He was memorably a longtime captain of the Carolina Hurricanes and led them to a Stanley Cup. He’s simply had a marvelous career.
Another interesting aspect about him is that he of course played with the Rangers at the end of the 2015-16 season. In 20 regular season games with the Blueshirts, he had only six points. He also failed to record a point in five postseason games. Although his tenure with the Rangers was not the most glorious, his expectations would be far lower this go-around if he were to sign a PTO.