As players start to gather in Raleigh for the commencement of the 2026-27 season, there had been one big contract signing that fans were looking for before Training Camp Starter.
Of course, that of the Captain, Jordan Staal.
Staal was set to begin his final season under the four year deal he signed back in 2023, and many had assumed that would be the last deal he would sign for the Canes. That assumption went up in flames when he had one of the best offensive seasons in a while thanks to his placement
on the first Power Play Unit to help win faceoffs and be a big body in front of the net when those faceoffs were successful.
Then there was the whole Conn Smythe Trophy winning performance thing in the Stanley Cup Final that elicited the cheeky “Jordan Staal, come on back up!” from Gary Bettman as he handed the Cup to the team. It marks quite the turn around from when Staal was traded to Carolina on his wedding day, endured the maddening downs of the franchise stuck in the mud, and dealt with the whole ridiculousness of dual captains.
During the summer the topic had come up from multiple angles about how much longer Staal would play, and in multiple interviews is became clear that Staal wasn’t ready to call this season his last. Now, the man who shoulders the C and is the heart of the team has made it official that he will be around for at least one more year.
In announcing the deal, the structure is such that it was meant to be done before midnight eastern when the new collective bargaining agreement took place. The eye-popping number isn’t the base $900,000 salary but the $4 million signing bonus. The contract also has $5.1 million in additional performance bonuses, what those are weren’t released initially.
While the focus on the collective bargaining agreement change was on the loss of the eight year deals, the CBA is also changing up the actual structure of the deals as to what can be signing bonuses. From this point forward, signing bonuses can only make up 60% of a deal’s total worth—meant to try to avoid some clever offer sheets that had emerged under the previous rules. While the CBA does allow for one year of a deal to be front-loaded with bonuses, it isn’t clear that would be allowed in a one-year extension. Either way, the deal getting done before midnight erases that question.
No doubt the signing bonus is a congratulations of sorts to the man who will now try to lead the team to a repeat of the Cup. One thing is for sure, that when his teammates convene for the first practice on Thursday, there won’t be a hint of wonder as to whether this will be it for him.
