Older brother Eric won a Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes. Younger brother Jordan brought the trophy home to Thunder Bay in 2009, as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Marc and the New York Rangers, his home for the first 13 seasons of his 15-season NHL career, made a run at the Cup in 2014, but fell short against the Los Angeles Kings.
After two seasons with the rebuilding Detroit Red Wings, the 35-year-old blue-liner made a conscious effort to join a team that was poised to go deep into the playoffs.
He may have found that in the Florida Panthers.
Staal inked a one-year, $750,000 deal with the Presidents’ Trophy winning Panthers on the first day of free agency, a team that finished 58-18-6 in the regular season, but were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.“Joining up with the guys is a no-brainer,” Staal said, asked about his excitement level at joining a Cup-contending team.“I get to join a really talented team that has playoff and Stanley Cup ambitions and to get back into that mix is very exciting for me and I’m very motivated and very excited to join the team.”
He’s also excited at the potential to play with Eric once again. The former 100-point scorer, who last played for Montreal during their improbable 2021 run to the Stanley Cup final, sat out most of last season, suiting up for five games with the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild before joining Team Canada at the Olympic Games.
The oldest of the Staals signed a professional tryout offer and will be given a chance to make the team.The deal, Marc said, went down like so many others in business – on the golf course.
“We were in California, at Pebble Beach, actually, doing Jordan’s 1,000th game trip that the boys got him a couple of years ago. We weren’t able to do it last summer, so the four brothers were all together. We’d just finished a round of golf and it all kind of came about,” he said.
“It was a pretty cool day, a pretty cool memory. Obviously I’m very excited to go down there and he’s extremely excited to get another opportunity to get back in the NHL.”
Looking at the Panthers young defensive core, Staal said he thinks he can be a steadying influence on and off the ice, though he’s not sure he really needs to provide much insight to the Panthers blue-liners, who have managed to figure out much of it on their own.“Those guys are pretty well established, they’re pretty good players in the NHL, and they know what it takes to come to the rink day in and day out. I’m looking forward to taking care of my business on the ice and compet(ing) and lead(ing) by example,” Staal said, “and help out where I can.“But like I said, these guys can play and they’re a very talented group. I’m just excited to be a part of it and help anyway I can.”
Staal posted three goals and 16 points in 71 games with Detroit last season and has 49 goals and 214 points in 1,019 career NHL games, adding seven goals and 13 assists in 107 playoff games, the most of any player on the Panthers roster, one more than Patric Hornqvist.