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REPORT: Eric Staal CLOSE to signing with NHL team?

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Ryan
October 19, 2022 (9:27 PM)

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It's been over a year since we saw Eric Staal in a National Hockey League uniform, he took last season off and decided to play for the Canadian Olympic team, where he recorded 1 goal and 3 assists in 5 games.

While he didn't play in the NHL, he did play in 4 AHL games for the Iowa Wild where he recorded 2 goals and 3 asissts in the 4 games.

Staal was the 2nd overall pick back in the ELITE 2003 NHL Entry draft, and is still ranked first overall in points by all players drafted in that year.

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We have not seen Staal in an NHL uniform since the Stanley Cup run he has with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021. People were very excited this offseason when it was announced that Staal signed a PTO with the Florida Panthers, and was possibly going to be playing with his brother Marc, who signed a one year deal with the Panthers.

People were dissapointed though when the Panthers let Staal go from his PTO right before the season, but the rumour floating around was it was only due to salary cap issues.

Today though some hope was renewed for an NHL return for Staal as Panthers General Manager announced that Staal was skating with the team as a non-roster player.

#FlaPanthers general manager Bill Zito says that Eric Staal is skating with the team as a non-roster player.

He has yet to sign a contract with the team due to the salary cap issues.� Colby Guy (@ColbyDGuy) October 19, 2022

It was announced today that star defenceman Aaron Ekblad would miss significant time with an injury, so that does free up quite a bit of cap space to bring on Eric Staal if the team is indeed interested.