Patience will be key with Eric Staal

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The Rangers once again chose to go “all in” this trade deadline, sending two second round picks and highly touted prospect Aleksi Saarela to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for pending free agent Eric Staal. Staal, who is now reunited with his brother Marc in New York, is yet another player in a line of those seen as the missing piece to a Stanley Cup winning team. There’s various ways to pick apart this trade, and I recommend reading Dave’s piece here or listening to our discussion of the trade with Patrick Kearns on the podcast for those purposes, but one thing I feel is important to stress with this move is patience.

Patience is what paid off in both of the Rangers’ previous splashy deadline day trades, in which they acquired Martin St. Louis in 2014 and Keith Yandle in 2015. In both cases, the players acquired needed some time to adjust to a new system, were plagued by poor puck luck, and just overall required some time to gain chemistry and identity with their new team. In both cases it may have seemed at first that the Rangers lost each trade, especially given the price paid to acquire both St. Louis and Yandle, but in the end we saw Martin St Louis lead the team to the Stanley Cup Finals and Keith Yandle blossom into the commanding defenseman that we know today.

St. Louis perhaps is the more dramatic case of a player who required patience before coming into his own as a New York Ranger, with the diminutive sniper going 14 games before scoring a single goal with his new team. While some fans (myself included) may have been disappointed at first this fact seemed to matter little as he led the team in playoff goals on the way to the Finals, with 8 goals and 15 points total in the post season. His points/60 over the 44 regular season and playoff games he played that season in all situations eventually climbed to 1.7, not exactly a bust. The following season he was even more successful, notching 22 goals and 37 assists for a 2.2 points/60 ratio over 93 regular season and playoff games in all situations.

Keith Yandle found himself in a similar situation when he first arrived in New York, finding himself struggling to adjust to a new system and role. Although today it’s easy to point to smart zone exits and brilliant playmaking as a fundamental part of his game these aspects of his play were not plainly evident at first. Although not as snake-bitten as St Louis was, it took Yandle 6 games to register his first goal and ten games to register his first assist as a Ranger, in addition to the fact that he didn’t reach his eventual average points/60 of 1.7 until he had played 17 games as a Ranger. Suffice to say that while it took some time for Yandle to really heat up he’s more than proven himself to be the defenseman the Rangers were looking to acquire when they traded for him.

Now there are a few key differences between the cases of St Louis, Yandle, and Eric Staal. The first is that Staal is a rental and both St Louis and Yandle had time left on their contracts when they were acquired. This means that although patience is key, Staal has less time to prove himself with the Rangers than did his counterparts.

Additionally, it’s worth noting the price paid to acquire each player was different, so the level of expectation can reasonably be said to be different for each player in this comparison. Reasonable people can always disagree as to the level of expectation to hold a play to and I won’t begrudge anyone that in this case, although I will note that all things considered the Rangers certainly did not overpay for Staal.

Finally, a key difference between Staal, St Louis and Yandle is that Staal is already underperforming this season, with a low points total and shooting percentage despite very impressive possession numbers. That is to say it would not be unreasonable to expect him to pick up some more points playing with better teammates. Still though if there’s one thing that can be learned from a look back at the last blockbuster deadline deals the Rangers have made it’s that a little patience can’t hurt. Guys take time to adjust to new systems and play styles, generate chemistry with their linemates, and find their game after playing for one team for so long.

Getting traded is not always easy on a player, and both Martin St. Louis and Keith Yandle didn’t become the Rangers we look upon fondly overnight. Although the adjustment period obviously needs to be shorter in this case, given Staal’s pending UFA status, patience will be key in the case of the Rangers’ newly acquired star.