Last year, Eric Staal put up a points total for the Minnesota Wild at a level he hadn’t reached in the seven seasons prior. The question is whether it’s a repeatable feat?
The Minnesota Wild will certainly be relying on Eric Staal not to regress horribly, especially given their division certainly appears to have gotten more competitive over the summer break.
Staal, upon arriving in Minnesota, could always be relied upon for somewhere in the realms of fifty to sixty points each year.
He had a couple of personal outlying seasons; one split between the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers where he didn’t quite hit the forty mark and his young years in Carolina where he hit 100 on one occasion. However, for the most part he sticks within a quite tight range.
For him to put away 42 goals last season was unexpected. Not to say he hadn’t done it in the past, but we’re talking a 32-year-old that has been around the league quite some time. Not usually the sort of player to explode from nowhere.
More from Gone Puck Wild
- Defenseman Matt Dumba signs one-year contract with Arizona
- Minnesota Wild reach agreement with Brandon Duhaime on one-year contract
- Minnesota Wild receive mixed grades for picks in NHL Entry Draft
- Minnesota Wild draft heavy on centers and home-state selections
- Minnesota Wild open regular season at home against Stanley Cup Finalist
Add in the fact that he’s incredibly good value for money at $3.5 million for the year and you most definitely hope he can back it up again!
Last year, unfortunately for the Minnesota Wild, doesn’t seem repeatable.
Last season (courtesy of statistics from Dobber Sports) saw Staal rocking a 17.4% shooting percentage when his three-year average (even factoring last year in) is 12.7%.
That shooting percentage also saw him elevate his power-play goal scoring to levels he hadn’t reached in almost ten seasons. That time round, he was playing almost double the 2:11 average power-play time. Again, a stat-line that you’d expect to regress as his shooting levels come down.
There is good news however; he did most damage for the Minnesota Wild when partnered with Jason Zucker and a combination of Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter. All three remain with the team and you’d expect them to all garner plenty of time together this year given their successes previously.
Also, this being his contract year, there’s a chance that he is even more committed to backing up his performance last season in the hopes of earning one last big payday.
Whether that’d be something that Minnesota could help with is another question entirely; the team is rather bereft of cap space, barring any potential trades that we can speculate about, and don’t need to sink big money into another veteran.
Can he back it up? Sure.
Will he back it up? Unlikely, unfortunately for Minnesota Wild fans.