Keep An Eye On The Canes

from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN, Keep an eye on the Carolina Hurricanes when it comes to how things play out on the Jordan Staal front with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

As I wrote recently, the Penguins’ top priority is to sign both Sidney Crosby and Staal to contract extensions this summer—both centers are UFA-eligible on July 1, 2013—but if they can’t get both done in a cap-sensible manner, it could open the door on Staal perhaps being dealt.

Several teams have already expressed an interest to Pittsburgh regarding Staal, but I believe the Hurricanes will definitely be aggressive in trying to trade for him, with the idea of course to have him on same team as his brother, Hurricanes captain Eric Staal.

If and when the Penguins decide to open the trade market on Jordan Staal, which as I pointed out above they have not yet because they’d rather sign and keep him, Pittsburgh could get more out of Carolina in a traditional hockey deal than other teams.

Why? While other teams might point to the fact Jordan Staal only has one year left on his deal and won’t want to give up too much for a pending 2013 UFA, the Hurricanes no doubt would be willing to take more of a long-term gamble that given the sibling tie-in, they could re-sign Jordan Staal.

Either way, I think the Hurricanes are going to be an interesting team this summer. I believe they’re going to add to their payroll and want to upgrade with one or two forwards.

more notes on Sidney Crosby, Tim Thomas, Filip Kuba and Ryan Suter….

Source: http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/keep_an_eye_on_the_canes/

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