Eric Staal arrived at a franchise with no history, and helped make some worth celebrating

As a player, Eric Staal didn’t have to sit through many of the ceremonies like the one celebrating his career Sunday afternoon. The Carolina Hurricanes didn’t have a Hall of Fame. There wasn’t a long list of former greats waiting patiently for their moment of honor.

There were two in his early years, both in seasons more memorable for other, ensuing events: Ron Francis’ No. 10 was retired in 2006, during Staal’s second NHL season, and Glen Wesley’s No. 2 in 2009. Staal is a big reason those seasons leap so quickly to mind.

What happened in 2006, when Staal led the NHL in postseason scoring after the franchise’s (still) only 100-point regular season, before setting up Justin Williams for the empty-net goal that secured the Stanley Cup, remains the high point of both the Hurricanes’ existence and Staal’s career.

Three years later, the Hurricanes’ playoff run expired in the conference finals, but not before Staal scored one of the great goals in franchise history to eliminate the New Jersey Devils. Those good times, Staal said Sunday, far outweigh any of the leaner years that followed in his mind.

Here we are 15 years later, a different Staal brother wearing the C, and the good moments Eric Staal was a part of remain the best moments. A night like this, when Staal’s No. 12 joined those of Francis and Wesley and Rod Brind’Amour in retirement, is nothing new for the current players. They’ve done it before, even if they may not always know exactly why.

“It’s a little different, that routine of having to sit through a ceremony,” Staal said. “A couple of those guys are young guys. ‘Who is this guy? We have to watch this?’”

To celebrate history, you have to make history.

Staal arrived at a franchise with almost none. He became its first homegrown superstar, part of moments so powerful even a snippet of “The Rising” summons old emotion. The parade of former teammates who greeted him on the ice Sunday, men easily recognized by their nicknames joined him in creating a legacy worth recognizing.

Wardo and Willy. Stiller and Whit. Heddy and Juice. Rudy and Rosey and the Robe. And so on.

Some of them are already in the Hurricanes’ nascent Hall of Fame. Others will join Staal soon enough.

“It’s not new,” said Brind’Amour, the current coach and former Staal teammate who preceded him as captain. “We have a history now. We have players like that we can celebrate that have had great, great careers. I think that says a lot about what’s going on here, and he was a huge part of establishing that and the culture and everything we talk about being a Carolina Hurricane.”

When Staal left in 2016, the Hurricanes were in shambles: Underfunded, poorly coached, caught in a repeat cycle of incomplete rebuilding. What’s happened since, with younger brother Jordan captaining a consistently competitive contender in front of sellout crowds, is proof what Staal helped build was never dead, merely dormant.

“You’d think I would hold a little bit (of a grudge), because you’re right, all those things did happen,” Staal said. “When I was here, I wanted that to be the case. I wanted us to be a contender, adding guys at the deadline and spending to the cap. But it just wasn’t what we were. So when I left and was somewhere else and seeing them where they are now, I was pumped. One, because my brother’s here, for one reason. But that wouldn’t have been the only one.“

It’s easy to traffic in nostalgia when ticket sales are sluggish or success on the ice seems distant. That’s not the case for the Hurricanes right now. Whatever they were when Staal was here, they have evolved into something new and stronger. The highs may not be as high yet, but there are none of the lows Staal so often endured.

So honoring Staal on Sunday was no desperate grab at past glory; it’s a reinforcement of how the Hurricanes got here. Who and what they are today is inextricably linked to what they were. That didn’t exist when Staal arrived.

He helped create it. He made history.

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