What a surprising move! The Carolina Hurricanes have dealt their #1 Center and topscorer Eric Staal to the Edmonton Oilers. "We never thought about to deal Eric, but the Oilers gave us a very good offer", Carolina's GM Matt Kaminski told us.
Also a reason to deal Staal was the outstanding play of prospect Jonathan Toews. "Toewsie will become our #1 Center and Captain for a long time", Kaminski added.
The Hurricanes also have Bryan Little in their prospect pool - another promising young Center.
With Maxime Talbot, Jiri Hudler and Robyn Regehr the Hurricanes received a bunch of new faces from Edmonton. "We like them a lot. But especially the addition of the prospects Okposo and Mercier made it easier to deal away Eric", so Kaminski.
To Edmonton:
Eric Staal
Yanic Perreault
Caro 7th in 2008
To Carolina:
Maxime Talbot
Jiri Hudler
Robyn Regehr
Kyle Okposo
Justin Mercier