Staal, Sharp lead local NHL contingent

Jordan Staal and Patrick Sharp are Thunder Bay’s brightest lights on the NHL stage this season.

Sharp, rebounding from a knee injury suffered last season, has 11 goal and 12 assists in 25 games with the Chicago Blackhawks, putting the soon-to-be 30-year-old on pace for a career-best 75-point campaign.

Staal, the youngest of three NHL-playing brothers, has been dynamite for the Penguins, with a dozen goals and six assists in 23 appearances.

The 23-year-old, who scored 29 goals as a rookie in 2007-08, is on track for a 42-goal campaign, 13 more than his previous high, though his role may change with the return of all-world forward Sidney Crosby. This year he has local company, with the arrival of former Thunder Bay North Stars blue-liner Robert Bortuzzo, who has two penalty minutes in two appearances in his NHL debut season.

Older brother Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, on the other hand, has struggled for most of the season, netting just five goals and seven assists in 26 games, by far the worst offensive output of his eight-year NHL career, other than his rookie season.

The Hurricanes, who have also struggled all season long, dumped coach Paul Maurice earlier this week in favour of untested Kirk Muller.

After notching 18 goals in his second season in Phoenix, Thunder Bay’s Taylor Pyatt has taken a step back offensively in 2011-12, scoring just three times to go with four assists in 23 games. The former 20-goal scorer would barely break double digits if he doesn’t pick up the pace.

Meanwhile younger brother Tom Pyatt has only managed to score once, with one helper, in 19 games in his new home in Tampa Bay.

The 24-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Lightning this past summer, after spending two seasons with the Montreal Canadiens.

In Ottawa, goalie Alex Auld has only worked his way into six games, and sports a 3.36 goals against average and an 0-3-1 record.

It’s Auld’s second go-around in Ottawa, his eighth NHL team.

Thunder Bay winger Chris Porter has a goal in 13 outings with St. Louis, while Thunder Bay-born defenceman Taylor Chorney, who grew up in the States, has no points in four games split between St. Louis and Edmonton, and is currently playing in the American Hockey League, for the latter team’s farm club in Oklahoma City.

Injured New York Rangers defenceman Marc Staal has yet to play a game this season, thanks to post-concussion syndrome, but has resumed light skating workouts. There is no timetable for his return.