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From draft-night trade to Cup Contender Captain, a look back on Jordan Staal’s Hurricanes journey

June 22, 2012, Pittsburgh — “We have a trade to announce. And for those of you in the building you’ll be particularly interested.”

That was NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft in Pittsburgh, setting the stage for one of the biggest trades in Hurricanes history: Jordan Staal, the younger brother of then-Hurricanes captain Eric Staal and widely regarded as one of the best young two-way centers in the NHL, was headed to Raleigh.

The Hurricanes and then General Manager Jim Rutherford paid a steep cost to acquire Staal, trading away Brandon Sutter, the No.