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Carolina Hurricanes face 'extremely tough' choices with Staal and Ward

Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images

Carolina Hurricanes general manager Ron Francis believes the questions and queries about the contracts for Eric Staal and Cam Ward have been more difficult on the players than himself.

This is strange, considering the fact Francis has the unenviable task of trying to figure out what to do with both pending unrestricted free agents before the Feb. 29 trade deadline.

Does he deal Staal or Ward and try to yield a return in case they bolt this summer? Does he try to re-sign them before the deadline? Does he play out the string with them and hope they can figure out a course of action with both players before July 1? Staal is reaching the end of a seven-year $57.75 million contract that kicked in for the 2009-10 season. Ward, who won the 2006 Conn Smythe Trophy, is in the last season of a six-year $37.8 million contract.

“Any time you’re in that situation is extremely tough. It’s probably even tougher on them than me in a lot of ways,” Francis said. “I have great relationships with those guys and the agent. All the dialogue we’ve had has been open and honest and we’ll continue to do that as we move forward here. At some point decisions will have to be made. Both guys have no-move clauses so if they don’t want to go anywhere, that’s the right to have in their contract. We’ll see how things play out.”

What Francis decides to do with Staal and Ward will effectively chart the future of the Hurricanes. And the way the team has played of late has made the choice even tougher.

Since a five-game losing streak in November, the Hurricanes have gone 18-11-6 and are four points outside of the Wild Card spot. Jeff Skinner has rediscovered his scoring touch and the team has solved their goaltending problem that undermined their sound defensive game.

A year ago, the Hurricanes finished with the fifth-worst record in the NHL. This season they’ve become one of the leagues surprise teams, coming back from a rough start that saw them win just two of their first eight games.

“It’s a better situation to be in than where we were last year at this point,” Francis said. “There’s a lot of things in this business that are not easy and certainly this is one of them. We have some time before we get there and we’ll see where things go.”

For the first few months of the season, Carolina’s goaltending let them down. Lack won just five of his first 14 starts and held a .891 save percentage. Ward had a .900 save percentage in his first 27 decisions. Since Dec. 10, Ward has gone 6-3-3 and Lack has posted an 8-4-2 record.

Ward is currently 15-11-6 with a 2.38 goal-against average and .908 save percentage. Lack is 9-10-3 with a 2.74 goal-against average and .901 save percentage.

“It’s certainly frustrating because you see your team doing a lot of good things. And it wasn’t just not getting the save, we weren’t getting a goal and we were hitting posts and crossbars and missing chances,” Francis said. “Our shooting percentage was terrible the first couple of months. When you have one going bad for you you might be able to overcome it. When they’re both going bad at the same time it’s tough to overcome it.”

Throughout the year, the Hurricanes have been one of the best teams at suppressing shots on goal. Currently they rank second, allowing 26.8 shots on goal per-game. According to War on Ice, they’re at 52.8 CF% 5-on-5, which ranks fifth in the NHL. This means they attempt more shots than their opponent even strength.

Last year they were one of two non-playoffs teams in the NHL to rank in the top 10 in CF%. Part of this is the system of second-year coach Bill Peters. To him, dump-and-chase is an outdated philosophy. He thinks a team should carry the puck into the offensive zone and force the play.

“If you think you’re going to just chip-and-chase and get the puck back all the time, it’s just a lot of work,” Peters said. “We’d rather make the possession entry coming over the offensive zone blueline, but it’s not always there. But when it’s there we want to take advantage of that and that’s what we’ll build moving forward with our personnel.”

The ability to hold onto the puck helps when you have scoring threats, and Peters figured out how to wake up Skinner.

Last year the slumbering sniper struggled with 18 goals and 31 points in 77 games. He’s equaled or bested those numbers this season with 31 points and 19 goals in 54 games.

The Hurricanes made Skinner watch all his goals from his rookie year in 2010-11, when he fired 31. This helped him better comprehend what he had to do to start placing the puck in the net again.

“He’s scored in various fashions and close to the blue paint. He scored on redirections and rebounds. He paid a price to get there and he’s done a better job of that this year playing in the high traffic areas and going to the net on a consistent basis with and without the puck,” Peters said. “So that’s the biggest turnaround in his game individually.”

Despite these positive markers, along with the continued development of rookie defenseman Noah Hanifin, third-year center Elias Lindholm and the steady play of defenseman Justin Faulk, so much of the rest of Carolina’s season hinges on what the team does with Ward, and specifically Staal.

Before the season Staal and Peters sat down and discussed how to approach the contract situation in the locker room.

“If he wants to talk to me about it, he can come into my office at any time. He gets the question non-stop on the road, a little bit at home,” Peters said. “It’s between him and his agent and obviously our general manager Ron Francis.”

The 31-year-old Staal is on pace for 46 points and 14 goals – both would be his lowest full-season total since his rookie year. He was selected by Carolina with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 Draft and ranks third in franchise games played with 900, second in goals with 321 and second in points with 772.

He reportedly wants $9 million per-year, but that would be a tough pill to swallow for Carolina considering his drop in production. Staal is reaching the end of a seven-year $57.75 million contract that kicked in for the 2009-10 season.

Still, the team is much better when he’s on the ice. His CF% Rel is 6.30 and his CF% is 57.10.

“I’m more worried for players, the offensive type player, when they’re not getting those types of chances,” Peters said. “He’s consistently getting those chances so eventually the tide will turn and they’ll stat going in. So as long as he keeps doing things right he’ll get rewarded in the end.”

Even if Francis wanted to trade Staal and Ward, he’d need both to sign off on the deal. They have no-trade clauses, which means they’re driving the bus on a trade more than Francis to some degree.

“Those guys are good players and have been part of this organization for a long time,” Francis said. “My story hasn’t changed. You have dialogue with those guys. You’re open and honest and we’ll continue to monitor where we are and have conversations and see where things go. We have 10 games left before the deadline and eight of them are at home so hopefully we can make a run here.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!