Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Canes Looking to Lock Down Staal


Hey team, Dennis Lemieux here with some news…

“By JOEDY McCREARY, AP Sports Writer 2 hours, 14 minutes ago
RALEIGH, N.C.
(AP)—General manager Jim Rutherford has said he hoped to have a new deal for his
23-year-old star by the start of training camp next week. And while few details
have emerged publicly, Staal said the talks are anything but, well,
stalled.
“They know I want to be here, they know that I really enjoy the area
and love the organization,” Staal said Tuesday. “It’s just a matter of finding
the (common) ground that works. I think we’re getting close as we move forward,
but it’s not something that I am pressing or that’s going to bother me when the
season starts. It’s not. I’ll be ready to play as if it was done.”
Staal is
entering his fifth season with the Hurricanes and the final year of a three-year
contract he signed in 2006 that will pay him $5 million in 2008-09 before he is
eligible for restricted free agency after the season.
Both sides expect a
long-term deal well before then, and naturally, that would be welcome news for
Coach Peter Laviolette, who has watched Staal blossom from a first-round draft
pick in 2003 into a point-a-game scorer, anchor of his No. 1 line and MVP of
last year’s All-Star game."

Full story HERE.

Pretty much a no-brainer here, Staal is the pepperoni to Carolina’s pizza pie, the cinnamon to their toast crunch (this is the best I can come up with).

Another thought, I am really impressed with the way the Hurricanes run their operation down there beneath the radar, I wish I could say the same for a certain team, a certain blogger is a fan of…

Side note: did anybody get NHL yet? And is it as good as it looks?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

NHL is that good. I'd know...I've been testing it for 6 months!

'Be a Pro' will own you! OWN YOU!