Carolina Hurricanes

Minnesota Wild forward Eric Staal was injured during Saturday's NHL Stanley Cup playoff game against the St. Louis Blues after crashing into the boards.

Per Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, Staal looked "completely woozy" and was "barely moving anything in his upper body" while being helped to the locker room.

NHL.com's Lou Korac noted the Wild's public relations staff confirmed Staal was "alert and stable" as he was being taken to Regions Hospital for observation.

The team later announced that Staal had been released from the hospital.

On the play when Staal was injured, he was trying to break through St. Louis' defense for a shot and appeared to be tripped. His head seemed to collide directly into the boards as he was trying to turn his body.

Staal led the Wild with 28 goals and finished second with 65 points during the regular season. The Wild entered Saturday's Game 5 against the Blues looking to avoid elimination in the Western Conference quarterfinals, but St. Louis took the series thanks to Magnus Paajarvi's overtime winner.

For more news, rumors and related stories about Eric Staal, Minnsota Wild and the NHL, check out the NHL and Wild streams on Bleacher Report's app.

Carolina Hurricanes forward Bryan Bickell will retire after 10 seasons in the NHL after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November. 

He announced his decision Saturday prior to Carolina's home game against the St. Louis Blues at PNC Arena. 

"I've made the decision with my family that I'm going to call it quits, so it's just these last two games," he said, per NHL.com's Kurt Dusterberg.         

Bickell sat out five months this season while learning to control his symptoms. He returned to the Hurricanes lineup April 4. 

Carolina Hurricanes goalie Eddie Lack was hospitalized after Andreas Athanasiou collided with him while scoring a game-winning goal to hand the Detroit Red Wings a 4-3 overtime victory Monday night.

NHL.com relayed video of the collision, which resulted in Lack being stretchered off the ice:

"Eddie Lack is currently undergoing tests at UNC REX Hospital," the team said in a statement on Twitter. "He does have full feeling in his extremities. The Hurricanes will provide additional information about his condition when it is available."

Lack later sent a tweet updating fans on his condition:

"He obviously took a shot to the head at the end of the play, and that's where the problem lies," Hurricanes head coach Bob Peters said, according to ESPN.com news services.

Before he was injured Monday, Lack dealt with two concussions that forced him to miss all of December and January.

"He's had a tough season, with injuries and all the stuff that's gone on for him," Hurricanes center Jordan Staal said, per ESPN.com news services.

"Hopefully he recovers from this quick, whatever it is, and he's back on the ice very soon. He made a lot of big plays for us tonight."

Former Boston Bruins winger Lee Stempniak will join the Carolina Hurricanes next season after signing a deal with the Eastern Conference club. 

Per TSN's Bob McKenzie, Stempniak's deal is for two years with an average annual value of $2.5 million. 

Per Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer, Stempniak explained what attracted him to Carolina:

Stempniak, 33, had his best statistical season in years, scoring 19 goals and adding 32 assists, the latter a career high. He played well for the Bruins after being acquired midseason from the New Jersey Devils, notching 10 points in 19 games, though he couldn't help the team reach the postseason.

It was the third season in a row Stempniak was moved at the trade deadline and the ninth team he played for in 11 years.

This is the plight of a player like Stempniak, who is a solid secondary scorer who can chip in his share of goals but will never be a team's primary source of offense. In the right situation, however, Stempniak is a solid top-six forward and an excellent complementary piece.

The Hurricanes will be hoping that Stempniak can be a solid scoring piece and a productive player who upgrades one of their top three lines. Carolina's leading scorer last season was Jeff Skinner, who had just 51 points, and the team finished 27th in goals scored.

His signing won't make headlines, but Stempniak is the type of solid, reliable option that a team in need of depth can depend on to play each night while providing quality production.  

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Goalie Cam Ward will return for a 12th season with the Carolina Hurricanes, as he signed a two-year, $6.6 million contract with the organization Thursday.

The Canes announced the move on their official website, and general manager Ron Francis commented on the re-signing: "Cam has been a major face of the Hurricanes both on the ice and in our community for more than a decade. We are happy he has chosen to continue his career in Carolina."

Ward will make $3.5 million in 2016-17 and $3.1 million in 2017-18 for an annual cap hit of $3.3 million.

The 32-year-old netminder has been a stalwart in Carolina's crease since shocking the hockey world during the 2005-06 playoffs as a rookie.

Ward led the Canes to the first and only Stanley Cup victory in franchise history that season, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in the process.

While Ward had some positive moments since then, including an All-Star appearance in 2011, his form has largely declined.

With career marks of a 2.70 goals-against average and .910 save percentage, the Canadian backstop has essentially been an average goalie despite getting paid like an elite one for six seasons with the Hurricanes.

He went 23-17-10 last season with a GAA of 2.41 and a save percentage of .909. Although the numbers weren't impressive as a whole, he was at his best down the stretch, and Francis praised him, according to Michael Smith of the team's official website:

I think we'll make a decision fairly soon in that regard. When we look at Cam, part of my job is making sure I go through the meetings with my pro [scouting] guys and assessing what's out there in the free agent market and then talking to all the other GMs to see which goaltenders may or may not be available and for the ones that are, what the price is. As I sit here today, do I want to give up a first-round pick for a goaltender that may have a year or two left on his deal and then we lose him, an older guy? Not really the plan I'm looking for. Cam takes a lot of criticism, but Cam from December to the end of the year was one of the top five goaltenders in the league in goals-against and save percentage. I think there's some merit to revisiting that as we move forward.

Following Francis' comments, Chip Alexander of the News & Observer was under the impression that a return to Carolina may have been in the cards for Ward:

After acquiring Eddie Lack from the Vancouver Canucks for two draft picks last offseason, he was expected to become the Hurricanes' starting goaltender.

Instead, the 28-year-old Swede struggled to the tune of a 12-14-6 record with a 2.81 GAA and .901 save percentage.

That resulted in Ward getting the bulk of the starts in between the pipes, and it left the Canes to consider bringing him back for a 12th season.

Ward may not necessarily be the best option as a workhorse goaltender at this juncture of his career, but he showed some flashes in the latter portion of the 2015-16 campaign and could be a high-value signing.

It was tough for Canes fans to praise his uneven showings when he was making in excess of $6 million per season, but at his new, reduced salary, Ward has an opportunity to outperform his contract and lead a Hurricanes team that appears to be on the rise.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

If you learn one thing today, learn this: The Carolina Hurricanes' Twitter account is not to be messed with.

If ever you feel the need to criticize the team's personnel moves, be warned. Whatever Internet savant runs that thing will dig deep into your social media history and use your own musings against you.

Poor Jack Holeck learned the hard way after publicly questioning the team's two-year extension for forward Joakim Nordstrom.

Tough. But fair.

[h/t Deadspin]

Carolina Hurricanes center Eric Staal had a no-trade clause in his contract, but that didn't stop him from finding a new home at the trade deadline.

Bob McKenzie of TSN reported Staal has waived his no-trade clause and will be traded to the New York Rangers. Darren Dreger of TSN reported the Rangers will send two second-round picks and prospect Aleksi Saarela back to Carolina.

McKenzie had reported earlier the Hurricanes were engaged in talks with the Rangers over Staal, but the Rangers were unwilling to part with the first-round pick the Hurricanes wanted in return.

"I'm not going to be crushed if a decision is made and I'm moving on," Staal had said on Feb. 18, per TSN1200's Ian Mendes.

Staal remained loyal to the franchise that drafted him No. 2 overall in the 2003 NHL draft, spending his entire career in Carolina.

After posting 100 points in his second season and helping the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup triumph, Staal has never reached those heights again. He's been back to the playoffs only once and has seen the Hurricanes miss the postseason in each of the past six years.

The 31-year-old has 10 goals and 23 assists this season, has remained healthy and should have plenty of hockey left despite being in the midst of his 12th NHL season. 

If the Carolina Hurricanes and the Washington Capitals are to ever make a rivalry out of their geographic proximity, they will need to play more games like the one on March 14, 2013.

Real rivalries need storylines. The Hurricanes' surprising surge to the top of the then-Southeast Division standings (boasting a 15-9-1 record at this point, more than halfway through the short year), the recent season-ending injury to Cam Ward and the Capitals' slow start to the lockout-shortened season took care of that easily.

Real rivalries need a sense of betrayal. Alexander Semin's goal less than two minutes into the game, his first against his former team, fulfilled that quickly.

Real rivalries need drama. The Capitals' rally from 2-0 down, finished by an Alexander Ovechkin tying goal one minute into the third period, provided it.

Real rivalries need controversy, and the game had that too.

A breakaway move by Ovechkin in the game's closing minutes skidded off the goalpost and stopped dead on the goal line before Capitals forward Mike Ribeiro and 'Canes goalie Dan Ellis located it simultaneously. Fans and announcers thought the puck had been saved; the referees and, eventually, the review war room concluded it had crossed the line.

Real rivalries also need an aura of importance, of significance, of consequence—an aura difficult to achieve in a full 82-game, or even a shortened 48-game, regular season.

Consider this: Since Ribeiro shoved the puck one inch over the goal line and Washington rallied to top Carolina, 3-2, at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 14, 2013, the Hurricanes have not won a single game while sporting a true winning record.

That stat can be disproved if one follows the silly Bettman-esque mindset of separating the "OTL" and "L" columns. But losses are losses, and the 'Canes suffered 17 such things in a 19-game stretch beginning on that brisk Thursday evening, turning a small meltdown into a catastrophic one.

Consequence? Check that one off with an extra bold marker.

The 'Canes have never recovered in the two-and-a-half years since.

Neither of the players who scored the 'Canes goals in that contest—Semin and Patrick Dwyer—are still part of the 'Canes team, with Semin being bought out after two disastrous seasons and Dwyer being let go after nine seasons with the organization.

The general manager who brought both players to Raleigh is gone, too. So are the head coach and two of the three assistant coaches who stood behind the bench that night.

The time between the end of the 2009 Eastern Conference Final and the winter of 2012-13 was a lean period in 'Canes history, and the time since the team's March-April meltdown that year and today has proved equally unsuccessful.

Aside from the brief optimism of January 2014, when the 'Canes went 10-4-0 to claim the 8th spot in Eastern Conference for all of four days, the club has never looked viable as even a contender for the playoffs, much less a playoff contender.

The implementation of general manager Ron Francis' long-term vision over the past year has brightened the horizon tremendously, but the outlook for 2015-16 alone appears far from promising.

The team has added not a single new forward to an offense that ranked 27th in the league a season ago, instead opting to leave spots open for the new wave of prospects prepared to overtake the 'Canes in coming half-decade. The plan is clearly for the future rather than the now.

One must wonder how a postseason appearance back in 2012-13, capped by perhaps another unexpectedly deep run á la 2002 and 2009, would have affected the state of the franchise today.

Would a successful campaign from start to finish have lured higher-profile free agents to Carolina? Would the Jiri Tlusty-Eric Staal-Semin trio have become an elite top line for years to come? 

Would the experience gained have helped youngsters like Drayson Bowman and Zac Dalpe become NHL regulars instead of failed projects? Would attendance in 2014-15 have been several thousand per game higher than the measly 12,594 the team actually averaged?

Or would the 'Canes have been fooled into thinking that Jim Rutherford remained the long-term answer at the GM position? Would Dan Ellis have been awarded an ill-advised multi-year contract? Would the Jamie McBain-for-Andrej Sekera trade never have happened?

Would the comprehensive rebuilding project at all levels of the organization have been simply delayed a few years?

The final ingredient for a real rivalry is success.

There is a reason why UNC vs. Duke is considered one of the world's greatest rivalries in basketball and is barely relevant in football, why the NBA's Lakers and Celtics (two teams roughly 2,500 miles apart) have such a legendary history, why the Red Wings' biggest rival was the Maple Leafs, then the Avalanche, then the Blackhawks.

It's an ingredient direly missing in one half of the 'Caps-'Canes would-be rivalry. Since 2010, Washington boasts five playoff berths, three division titles (including in 2012-13) and one President's trophy compared to Carolina's zero, zero and zero. 

Gaining more success and returning to the NHL's perennial playoff picture is certainly of higher priority to 'Canes management than developing a rivalry with their northern neighbors, with very understandable reason.

Carolina's blown lead back on March 14, 2013, and the losing streak that followed it, likely didn't create a maze of massive holes within the team, but rather—like pouring water into an anthill—just revealed them.

Even if so, however, the team is undoubtedly still waiting for the mound to dry.

Twenty-eight months later, the repercussions of the second half of the 2012-13 season continue to shape the mindset and the path of the Carolina Hurricanes franchise.

Elias Lindholm and Riley Nash.

Above is the entire list of Carolina Hurricanes forwards who shoot right-handed—a mere two out of 11.

As the discussion surrounding whether Hurricanes general manager Ron Francis will or will not make another signing or trade this offseason carries along, the vast imbalance in the team's current composition of forwards is a key shortcoming to consider.

During this past Saturday's interview in front of fans at the Summerfest event, Francis noted the importance of keeping NHL roster spots open for prospects to vie for during training camp. Given that the 'Canes are just one forward short of a regular-size cast of 12, one could interpret this as meaning that the team won't dip into the remaining free-agent pool.

Francis also claimed that he's still on the phone every day, however, and if adding another forward on a one-way contract is not in the cards, an acquisition via trade could still be possible.

If a modification is to be made to the Hurricanes forward corps before September, it will almost certainly bring aboard another right-shot right winger.

Since the team bought out Alexander Semin and let Patrick Dwyer hit free agency, Lindholm has temporarily become the Hurricanes' only player of such type (Nash is a center).

Unlike the general world population—10 percent of which is left-handed—the majority of NHL players shoot left-handed, although many write with their right hands. An "unscientific" study by Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe at the beginning of the 2014-15 season found that roughly 63 percent of the league used left-handed sticks.

Then-Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli also stated in the Globe article that "teams try" to balance their lefties and righties, but "it’s just that sometimes you can’t.”

A 2011 study by Arctic Ice Hockey found that at least 70 percent of NHL players at each position shot left-handed—except right wingers, of whom just 25 percent shot left-handed.

It is that elusive right wing position that currently confounds the 'Canes.

As far as available free-agent wingers go, Brad Boyes, Eric Fehr and Lee Stempniak are all right shots.

Sean Bergenheim, Curtis Glencross, Mike Santorelli, Jiri Tlusty and Scottie Upshall, conversely, are not.

And as far as prospect forwards who could earn opening-day jobs go, only Justin Shugg, Brody Sutter and Patrick Brown are right shots.

Lucas Wallmark, Brendan Woods, Brock McGinn, Sergey Tolchinsky and Phil Di Giuseppe—the flashier, more potential-laden players in the prospect pool—are not.

Having few right-handed shooters is not necessarily a no-go; the Red Wings ranked 10th in goals in 2014-15 (2.82 per game) despite sporting a mere one such player (Luke Glendening).

The heavy tilt toward the left side, nevertheless, could prove to be the fault that sinks the boat in the Hurricanes' situation. Carolina, after all, hardly boasts the same overall offensive firepower that Detroit does.

Whether ultimately addressed or not, the need for more right-shooting wingers should at least weigh on Francis' decision-making for the remainder of the offseason.