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Born	January 13, 1987 (1987-01-13) (age 23), Thunder Bay, ON, CAN
Height Weight	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 204 lb (93 kg; 14 st 8 lb)
Position	Defence
Shoots	Left
NHL team	New York Rangers
Ntl. team	Canada
NHL Draft	12th overall, 2005 New York Rangers
Career	2005 – present

Marc Staal (born January 13, 1987 in Thunder Bay, Ontario) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. He is the younger brother of Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, and older brother of Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Jared Staal, who was drafted in 2008 by the Phoenix Coyotes but is currently playing for the OHL's Sudbury Wolves.

Playing career

Staal played junior hockey from 2003–2007 for the Sudbury Wolves in the Ontario Hockey League where he was the team's captain, and led the Wolves to their first trip to the OHL finals in 30 years.[1] He was drafted by the New York Rangers in 2005 NHL Entry Draft in the 1st round, 12th pick overall.

Staal played for Team Canada in the 2006 and 2007 IIHF World Junior Ice Hockey Championships bringing home gold both times. He was named the tournament's top defenceman in the 2006 Championships.

Marc and younger brother Jared played together in Sudbury during 2006–07.

On May 7, 2007 The Ontario Hockey League announced that Staal is the recipient of the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL's Most Outstanding Defenceman for the 2006–07 season. This prestigious award was previously won by the likes of future NHL players such as Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, and Denis Potvin.

On May 13, 2007 Although his Sudbury team lost the OHL Championship Series to Plymouth in six games, Staal was named the winner of the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award, which goes to the league's postseason MVP.

On October 4, 2007, Staal made his NHL debut for the New York Rangers. Less than a month later, on November 1, 2007, he recorded his first NHL point when Chris Drury deflected his shot for a goal, giving Staal an assist, in a game against the Washington Capitals. Staal then scored his first NHL goal on November 14, 2007 against the New Jersey Devils and Martin Brodeur at the Prudential Center off assists from Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan. Staal would later score his first NHL playoff goal against Brodeur as well, on April 16, 2008 he netted the game winning goal in game 4 of the East Quarterfinals, which put the Rangers ahead in the series 3 games to 1.

Staal was one of sixteen rookies selected to participate in the 2008 YoungStars competition at the 56th NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta, where he scored a goal and an assist.^[1]

In 2009 Staal and brothers Eric and Marc were invited to try out for the Canadian men's Olympic hockey team, but when the team was named on December 30, 2009, only Eric was named to the squad.

Career statistics

References

External links

• Marc Staal's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database
• Marc Staal at rangers.nhl.com