TOTW 88 Eric Staal Review

Staal plays RW on a line with Marner (87) and MOV Matthews (89). Synergies active on his card are (WW, OJ, TW, CG, T, and 1T).

#Skating: 7.5/10 This is the one area that I feel is lacking in his game, yet it's not a massive detriment. He's not a slow skater, but he doesn't have that top end speed that'll push him past some of the all star squads in Div 1. He's not slow, but he'll definitely feel slow if you find yourself matched up against an all 94 hero team with TW activated.

That being said I've been able to manage to get him a number of breakaways and a few penalty shots. This is because his balance is fantastic and he's got very good puck control (which I will touch on in his hands category).

#Shooting: 9.5/10 His synergies are fucking fantastic. He already has a great shot, but lighting up WW and OJ and any of the team synergies that boost his shot just make him ridiculous. If he gets open, it's in. It doesn't matter if you wrist it or slap it, he can do both. He rarely misses a good one timer chance, and I've actually put him on the point for a few games because his clapper just makes things happen. Even if he's not scoring with it, he's creating dirty rebound chances for his teammates to bury.

If you don't want to run him as a defender, I would highly recommend trying him out as a point-man on the powerplay. His shooting is by far the best part of this card.

#Hands: 7.5/10 His ability to pull of dekes is decent, but not exceptional. He can pull off all the moves including the between the legs deke almost all of the time but the dangles don't feel as fluid as a guy like Sullivan or Marner. You don't pick up this card to go end to end dangling though, TOTW Staal is a pure puck protection beast.

As I mentioned in his skating section, despite him not being the fastest guy, he's still got a number of breakaways. A surprising number, in fact. The reason for this is once he's on the other side of the defender, they aren't getting the puck from him unless they skate around him. If they try to come directly from behind you can simply keep your body between them and the puck and they can either just try to hassle you and hope a 2nd player catches up to you to take the puck away, or they can take a penalty and give you a PP or PS.

He's got a very accurate pass, although I don't feel comfortable passing through traffic with him as they do seem to get intercepted a lot. That being said, he's very point to point with his passing and rarely will he send an outlet pass fluttering away like so many players do. If the guy is open and you aim the pass well, he'll get it to him.

#Checking 9/10 TOTW Staal can flatten motherfuckers and he isn't easily knocked over himself. I've had guys take clean runs at him, only to momentarily stagger him to his knees before popping right back up.

If you use him to grind on a forecheck, there are few player better that I've used this year at digging a puck out of a scrum. If there's a scrum just skate in with Staal and start throwin' that big dick around and you'll clear the area and walk away with the puck.

#Defense: 8.5/10 Good pokecheck, and he always seems to be in good defensive positioning. On the penalty kill he plays on my 2nd unit and if I retrieve the puck behind my net he's always in great position for a flip pass breaking the zone, but I never feel like he's cheating. The AI is very smart with controlling him. He's got a number of shorthanded goals because he's always in position to either intercept an opponents pass, or break out of the zone and receive a long saucer.

#Miscellaneous He has to have some of the best poise/clutch I've seen. If I'm scoring in the last minute of a game, almost without fail it's either him scoring or him setting it up.

In a random sample size of 15 games he got 8 goals and 3 assists for 11 points. All games were Div 1 online games.

#Closing His lack of top end speed would keep him off my top line, but I think he's a really good fit anywhere from the 2nd to 4th line. He can play a multitude of roles, and that's exactly what I look for in my bottom sixers (I want guys who can grind, hit, snipe, and set up some plays if need be).

If you play a cycle heavy game, he's an absolute beast and will fit right into your lineup.