Thursday, January 21, 2010

Player of the Day: Eric Staal

In case you missed it , I will be highlighting a player from Team USA and Team Canada leading up to the Vancouver Olympics. Today's player, from Team Canada and the newest captain of the Carolina Hurricanes, is Eric Staal.

Beginning in 2000-01, through the 2002-03 season, Eric played for the Peterborough Petes on the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Each year he was able to increase his point totals to 49, 62, 98 respectively. Coming off of his 98 point season he was awarded the Top Draft Prospect Award. He was also named to the OHL's second all star team and the Canadian Hockey League's (CHL) first all star team.

He was selected second overall in the NHL's entry draft in 2003, and began his NHL career during the 2003-04 season. He played in 81 games that season and put up respectable numbers with 11G-20A-31PTS. During the lock out year he spent a season with the Lowell Lock Monsters of the AHL. He played 77 games with Lowell and put up 77 points. The next season, 2005-06, Eric was instrumental in the Hurricanes' playoff run, ultimately leading to them winning the Stanley Cup. Since the lockout he has played in all 82 of the Hurricanes' regular season games.

Over the summer of 2007 he helped Team Canada win a gold medal in the World Hockey Championships. While on the verge of getting married over the summer of 2007, Eric and his brother Jordan were arrested after partying a little too hard at Eric's bachelor party. The following summer, 2008, he helped Team Canada win a gold medal at the same tournament.

As always, below are a couple cards that can be purchased through Checkoutmycards.com and Sportsbuy.com.

2006-07 SP Authentic #113 - Eric Staal/999 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

2007-08 SPx SPXtreme #X26 - Eric Staal/999 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

2007-08 Upper Deck Game Jerseys #JES - Eric Staal - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

2009-10 Upper Deck #82

2009-10 Artifacts #9

2009-10 Victory #37

2008-09 SP Authentic HoloFX #FX50



2 comments:

  1. Thanks for these, I've been learning who the good hockey players are.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No problem. There are a couple others in my blog roll that are good for learning who some of the past players are. Check out Puck Junk. He's been highlighting some of the players from Olympics past.

    ReplyDelete