By Karen Price
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, January 14, 2007
In the days leading up to the 2006 NHL draft, Penguins general manager Ray Shero fielded a lot of phone calls from teams interested in moving up to the No. 2 spot.
But Shero, who'd been on the job for only about a month, knew which player he wanted to make the first draft pick of his tenure with the Penguins, and no offer was good enough to make him change his mind.
Shero wanted Jordan Staal, the 17-year-old brother of Carolina Hurricanes star Eric Staal and the second-ranked player among all North American skaters. Staal is who he got.
Seven months later, Staal, now 18, is the Penguins' eighth-leading scorer and ranked 12th among all NHL rookies with 12 goals and three assists through 41 games. At the midway mark of the season he's already surpassed his brother's goal total from his rookie season and leads the league with five shorthanded goals.
And all this from a kid who no one, except perhaps Staal himself, thought would make the team.
"I don't think anybody had him penciled in to be playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins this year," Shero said. "We drafted him as a 17-year-old and certainly the natural path was for him to come to training camp, go back to junior, play in the World Junior Championship. But he's had a wonderful first half and exceeded all our expectations."
On any other team in the NHL, a player as young as Staal, especially one drafted second overall, would not only stand out but would also be under a certain amount of outside pressure.
On the Penguins, he isn't even the only teenager, let alone the only high draft pick.
And with players on the roster such as 2005 top pick Sidney Crosby, 19, and 2004 No. 2 pick Evgeni Malkin, 20, Staal can simply blend in.
"He's not the face of the franchise," Shero said. "I've been through the Alexander Daigle situation (drafted first overall in Ottawa in 1993) and I've been through David Legwand as the first pick ever in Nashville. There's pressure with that. You're not only expected to do well on the ice but it's off the ice as well. Luckily we have other players that are in the limelight and Jordan's been able to kind of slide under that and just kind of do his thing - be a kid, come to practice, play hockey and learn. I think it's benefited him."
Staal described his first few months in the NHL as "a whirlwind."
Once he made the team out of training camp, there was still a question as to how long he would stay. Given the team's wealth at center, many believed that Shero would send Staal back to juniors before he played 10 games. That way he could get a taste of the NHL, this year wouldn't count toward his three-year entry-level contract and he could continue his development with players his own age.
But Staal played well, registering four goals in his first eight games, including one game-winner and a two-goal night, and looked perfectly comfortable at the professional level. The team also got off to a 7-3 start, and Shero said the decision to keep Staal was not a difficult one.
"If we were 0-10 and he was struggling then, yeah, we probably would have made the decision the other way," Shero said. "But we had a good start and he was a part of that. ... It was a hockey decision, and I'm happy we kept him, I really am. I'd find it hard to have credibility sending him back whether it was at Game 10 or at Game 40."
Once he passed the 10-game mark, Staal said it finally hit him that he was in the NHL.
"I think it was the first couple weeks after I finally moved out of the hotel and got my own vehicle and started going to the rink by myself," Staal said. "I just started thinking, 'This is what I'm hopefully going to do for the rest of my career.' It really sunk in around that time and it felt good, that's for sure."
Staal lives in teammate Mark Recchi's guesthouse, an arrangement that's worked well for both. There, Staal can have some independence while not having to completely fend for himself, and Recchi, 38, says that he, his wife and their three children have enjoyed having Staal around.
Staal credits Recchi with helping ease his transition into the NHL and the Penguins perhaps more than anyone else.
"We'll talk about what's going on with the team and different things and how each other is playing," Staal said. "He's really helped me out a lot this year. I really owe it all to him pretty much, getting settled here and just relaxing and having to just worry about hockey. He's really helped me out, that's for sure."
It hasn't been all ups for Staal this year.
His play started to tail off a bit in late November, and then he got hit with a stomach flu that sapped his energy for the better part of a week.
Then, on Dec. 5, Staal was a healthy scratch.
"He was a little disappointed," his brother Eric Staal said. "I think that was a little bit of a wake-up call that you need to keep doing the things that made you successful to stay. He's done that since he got back in the lineup and hopefully he continues."
Staal was back the next game against the New York Rangers and hasn't missed a game since.
"He's a great player," Eric Staal said. "He has so much skill and size and he thinks the game so well for an 18-year-old. I think that's what kept him here was his smarts for the game and being able to read plays and be put in situations where he can contribute."
Recchi said he sees Staal growing more comfortable and his personality coming out more and more with each day. And with that, Recchi said, Staal's play is improving.
"And with his work ethic, he's going to keep getting better," Recchi said. "I think at some point you'll see him the next couple years be one of the guys you want to play against the top line all the time because he's going to do a great job plus he's going to score goals."
Averaging just under 14 minutes per game, Staal has also learned a new position this year - wing - and while he's played mostly on the third line, he was put on the left side of Malkin on the second line earlier this week. He's also one of the team's most called-upon penalty killers.
"I think everything's working out for me," Staal said. "I don't think they want to rush me and that's probably better for me to just come into my own. If it takes a couple years to get up on that first line, then that's how long it's going to take. Hopefully I just keep improving. That's all that really matters because they're going to give me the opportunity sooner or later if I keep playing well."
Karen Price can be reached at kprice@tribweb.com.
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