Jordan Staal stayed in Carolina through the lean years. Now that he's a Stanley Cup champion, he had a subtle message for the guys who didn't.
"Some guys just jump ship," Staal said, reflecting on staying put and grinding all the way to this title.
Drew Livingstone read it the way most did. It sure sounded like a shot at Mikko Rantanen and Jake Guentzel, stars who passed through Carolina but didn't stick around.
The loyalty story writes itself. Staal is 37, on a $2.9 million deal, a longtime captain who suffered through years of playoff heartbreak before finally breaking through.
The guys who left are watching from somewhere else.
Staal's line landed the moment the celebration started, and it traveled fast.
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Rantanen and Guentzel moved on, Staal won it all
Look at where they ended up. Rantanen now plays for Dallas on a $12 million deal. Guentzel is in Tampa at $9 million. Both moved on. Neither is holding the Cup.
Staal bet on loyalty and the long grind, and it paid off in the only currency that matters in June. That's the kind of story that sticks.
It also fits a theme that ran through this whole season. From Marner walking to Vegas to the player-empowerment debates, movement was everywhere. Staal's line is the loyalist's mic drop.
Here's the fair counter, though. Players have every right to chase their best deal and fit. Leaving isn't betrayal. It's business, and the empowerment era is real.
Rantanen and Guentzel aren't villains for taking better situations. They made the same call most people would.
Here's my read: still, there's something to the old-school point. Staal stayed, suffered, and won, and that story resonates precisely because it's rare in this era.
He gets to say it because he earned it. A captain who never left, lifting the Cup, has every right to a little shade.
The line will sting in Dallas and Tampa. And the loyalty-versus-movement debate it reopened isn't going anywhere soon.
Was Staal right to take a shot at the players who left Carolina?
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