Francis: "We're not looking to move" Eric Staal

Carolina Hurricanes GM Ron Francis was on Sportsnet’s Hockey Central @ Noon Thursday afternoon.

On if the Eric Staal trade talk is B.S.:

“Absolutely.”

“I think everybody looks for the big centerman, like you talk about. That’s why Jordan Staal is such a huge loss for us. I mean, he’s 6-foot-4, 237 pounds, less than eight percent body fat. You just don’t replace a guy like that. Eric is in that big mold. So you get that big centerman, those are the guys that everybody is trying to covet. We’re not looking to move a guy like that.”

On how it comes with the territory to hear top players’ names mentioned in rumors in places like New York or Toronto, but if it becomes more difficult to manage in a smaller market:

“I don’t know. I think that’s all part of the job. You understand that. I think people are always trying to throw things out there and stir things up... that’s the way it is in today’s world. I mean, you throw things on Twitter, it gets a lot of hits, everybody makes money, everybody is happy.

“But for me it’s no different than when I was a player. I mean, you’re aware of these things. You’re not sure if they’re true or not. And I think it’s important for me when I see these kind of things to have those conversations with my players whose names are involved and if there’s no truth to them, let them know that. And that’s just basically how I operate. I don’t really comment on the rumors and I just sort of deal with it internally with our players and our own staff as we move forward.”

On Andrej Sekera’s UFA status after this season:

“No, he would be a guy that we would look to re-sign and keep here. He’s been real good for us. He came over last summer – or two summers ago – and the kind of guy you want to be a part of your organization going forward. So hopefully that’s something we can do.”

Source: Sportsnet/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey