Florida Panthers add lots of experience with Marc & Eric Staal

The Florida Panthers added over 2,000 NHL games of experience and quickly raised the average age of their roster with the additions of Marc and Eric Staal on Wednesday afternoon.

The Panthers, who are closing in on the salary cap ceiling, needed to get a little creative to add the Staal boys to the team.

Technically — and this is per longtime NHL Insider Bob McKenzie — only Marc Staal is getting a contract for the veteran minimium of $750,000.

Eric Staal will join the Panthers in a professional tryout during training camp with the likelyhood something has been worked out to keep him on the team.

The eldest Staal — Eric — was the second overall pick of the 2003 draft and was the longtime captain of the Carolina Hurricanes.

He has played parts of 16 seasons with the Canes, Wild, Rangers and Sabres.

His previous season in the NHL was in 2021 when he split time with Buffalo and Montreal, scoring five goals with 13 points in 53 games.

Last season, Staal played in a handful of games with the AHL Iowa Wild as he ended up being the Team Canada captain in Beijing.

In his career, Eric Staal has 441 goals and 1,034 points in 1,293 games.

A good chunk of his career came in Carolina — with new Florida coach Paul Maurice behind the bench.

Marc Staal, 35, was the 12th overall pick by the Rangers in 2005 and spent most of his career there.

Marc has played his past two seasons in Detroit — where he scored three goals with 16 points in 71 games last year.

He has played in 1,019 NHL games with New York and the Wings, scoring 49 goals with 214 points.

The Staals are the third and fourth players to be added to the Panthers this afternoon joining Nick Cousins and Colin White.

Florida has also lost Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot, Mason Marchment and Noel Acciari to free agency.