Marc Staal was a wanted man this summer.
Rumour had it Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray was willing to pay a hefty reward for his capture, in the form of disgruntled sniper Dany Heatley.
But it wasn’t nearly enough to convince the New York Rangers to turn over the 22-year-old sophomore blue-liner, whose rock-steady ways have the Blue Shirts thinking they might be able to rustle up a Stanley Cup or two in the next few years.
Staal heard the rumours, but tried not to take them too seriously.
"A couple of people approached me about it and I heard certain things on TV and stuff like that, but my agent never tried to get in touch with me and I never really heard anything concrete about it," Staal said.
"I’m sure my name was tossed around, like I’m sure a lot of players names are tossed around. You don’t really know, but it doesn’t really affect me at all."
The 22-year-old, set to enter his third season with the Rangers, added it’s a good feeling to know GM Glen Sather wanted no part of any deals involving his young defenceman.
"It’s nice that hopefully they have that kind of confidence in me to become a better player and one that could play with their team for a long time. So it was good. Obviously I wanted to stay in New York, so I’m glad they didn’t move me."
Staal, who has plenty of international experience and a pair of world junior gold medals under his belt, is starting to make a name for himself on Broadway, enough that has Canada’s national team calling.
The Thunder Bay native has been invited to the Olympic orientation camp later this month in Calgary and said he’s just excited to get into camp and line up alongside future hall of famers like Scott Niedermayer and Dryden’s Chris Pronger.
He’s well aware he could be auditioning for the 2014 team four years in advance, given the talent ahead of him on the Canadian depth chart.
"I obviously want to have a good camp and want to make a good first impression, and then carry that into the year," Staal said. "But (the Olympics are) quite a ways a way and I think that all you can do now is go in and I’m looking forward to the camp."
What he won’t do is change the way he plays.
While guys like Niedermayer and San Jose’s Dan Boyle bring plenty of offence to the table, Staal is better known for his stay-at-home capabilities and the camp probably isn’t the best time for him to break out his best Bobby Orr moves.
Besides, it’s his play with the Rangers that will likely dictate whether he’s chosen when the team is announced in December.
"I think throughout the year I want to continue to get better as a player," said Staal, who had three goals and 12 assists playing all 82 games for the Rangers. "I’m not going to try to change my game to try to make the team in one role. I’m just going to try to do what I do and see what happens."
He may be considered a long-shot in some circles, but don’t bet against him too heavily not to find his way to Vancouver, even if it’s just part of the taxi squad, where his brother Eric served in 2006.