Of the four Staal brothers, Jared’s NHL career is most likely to be the shortest. (Dave Reginek/Gettty Images)

By Allan Muir

Jared Staal hasn’t made much of an impact this season with the AHL Charlotte Checkers, scoring just four goals and seven points in 52 games. In fact, he probably hasn’t done enough to earn a new deal with the Carolina Hurricanes after his three-year entry level contract expires at the end of this season.

But if that’s the way it plays out, the organization is giving him a pretty sweet parting gift: a chance to make his NHL debut on Thursday night when the ‘Canes host the New York Rangers at PNC Arena.

No word yet on where the 22-year-old winger will slot into the lineup, but there’s a good chance he’ll see some time with his brothers Eric and Jordan. It’s just too bad his other brother, Rangers’ defenseman Marc, is still recuperating from an eye injury suffered earlier this season and won’t be able to make it a family affair.

The Hurricanes acquired Jared Staal for a fifth-round pick in 2010 from the Coyotes, who’d drafted him 49th overall two years earlier. Despite good size (6′-4″, 200) and impeccable genes, he’s never been able to make his mark at the pro level, scoring just 18 points in 119 AHL games.

So why did he get the call?

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After a disappointing season, Flyers captain Claude Giroux will jump at a chance to play for Canada at the World Championships, but don’t expect to see Devils warhorse Martin Brodeur in net. (Photo by Bill Streicher/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

It’s not Las Vegas that’s on Matt Duchene’s mind as Colorado’s season comes to a disappointing conclusion. It’s Stockholm. Or, more to the point, Sochi.

The fleet-footed center is ready and willing to extend his season if Team Canada wants him for the upcoming World Championship.

“Absolutely, I’d play,” he said after the Avs were beaten by the Oilers on Friday night. While many players have begged off from the tournament in the past, Duchene would welcome “another chance to put on the [Canadian] jersey and perform and have all the eyes on you that are making the decision for next season.”

“Next season,” of course, is code for the 2014 Olympics. Making that squad is clearly on Duchene’s agenda. “[That would be] an absolute dream come true,” he said.

Duchene, who’s played at the worlds twice before, will be part of a larger-than-usual contingent that’s willing to suit up for Canada next month. Although the late start of the playoffs (April 30) and the early start of the tournament (May 3) mean Hockey Canada won’t be able to count on first-round knockouts to supplement its lineup, it shouldn’t have any trouble icing a stout roster this time around.

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Danny Briere has five goals and eight assists in 26 games this season. (Bill Streicher/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Logistics, not insurance, has emerged as the thorniest issue as negotiations attempting to ensure NHL participation in the Sochi Olympics resumed in New York Friday.

• Philly forward Danny Briere returns to the lineup Saturday after missing 10 games with a concussion. He might want to start grabbing some souvenirs. Odds are he won’t be back with the Flyers next season.

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Douglas Murray is a new Penguin because family came first for Jordan Staal. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

A notated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories about Jarome Iginla…and other stuff:

• Jordan Staal’s decision not to extend his contract with the Penguins last summer was the first step on the path to this week’s pre-deadline trading frenzy in Pittsburgh.

• All that airlifted talent doesn’t add up to more pressure on the Penguins, says James Neal. It simply ups their hunger to get the job done.

• Oh…and the Penguins shut out the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, 4-0, to win their 14th game in a row. The thing that stood out to me in this one: how relentless the line of Crosby/Dupuis/Kunitz was on the forecheck. If this is what their compete level looks like in March, I can’t wait to see them in May.

• Jarome Iginla said the chance to win the Stanley Cup convinced him that Pittsburgh was the right place for him.

• The Calgary Herald breaks down how the Iginla trade came together.

• Steve Simmons says Jay Feaster should have been smart enough to say no to an Iginla trade. Meanwhile, Flames fans are left to wonder what might have been if Feaster or his predecessors had ever managed to acquire a true No. 1 center to play with Iggy. Our own Stu Hackel called it a crime.

• The Senators are no longer counting on Jason Spezza to return this season.

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Eric and Jordan: the eyes have it. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Funny how people’s opinions can change about something when it suddenly affects someone they love.

Take Senator Rob Portman, for instance. Or a little closer to home, Eric and Jordan Staal.

It took nearly a month after watching their visorless brother Marc almost lose an eye when he took the full force of a slap shot in the face, but the two Carolina-based Staals finally decided it was time to protect their own futures.

Eric and Jordan hit the practice ice in Raleigh with a new look Friday morning, according to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer.

Here’s Eric Staal, explaining the decision:

“It’s been brewing for a little while. At this point I just feel like the risk [of injury] isn’t worth it right now, because of the injuries I’ve seen to other people in this organization, family.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re invincible, but as many guys have seen, you’re not. Unfortunately, injuries can happen. It’s just being smarter. As we’ve seen in the past when anybody has had an eye injury, they put [a visor] on. So why am I going to wait until that happens to me? Why not put one on now?”

“I wasn’t like we talked long. We kind of looked at each other like, ‘We’re got to start wearing one,’” Jordan Staal said. “It was just one of those moments like, ‘That’s it.’”

You watch the replay of the Marc Staal incident and it’s miraculous he didn’t lose an eye.

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By Allan Muir

The Devils knew Martin Brodeur would make an impact in his return to action Thursday night. They just didn’t realize it would be on the power play.

Making his first start since Feb. 21, the 40-year-old sniper opened the scoring in New Jersey’s 4-1 win over the Hurricanes. He picked up a loose puck behind his net, dashed into the neutral zone, pirouetted through a phalanx of defenders and then went roof daddy on the ghost of Jacques Plante.

Alright, that might be the story he tells the grand kids, but the reality wasn’t quite that spectacular. Brodeur was credited with the tally as the last Devil to touch the puck before Jordan Staal’s hard pass to the point caromed off the boards and down the ice into the cage that had been vacated by Dan Ellis moments earlier because of a delayed penalty call on New Jersey.

It was the third goal Brodeur has earned over his career, but the first ever on the power play. In fact, he’s just the second goalie to score on the PP–Evgeni Nabokov was the first back in 2002.

And how’s this for the ice-leveling powers of the hockey gods: the last goalie to light the lamp? Carolina’s Cam Ward, who was credited with a goal last season when New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk sent the puck the length of the ice into his own net.

Although to hear Ward tell it…