Marc Staal is one of the two current Rangers to have played for all four of the club’s coaches in the hard-cap era that commenced in 2005-06. Henrik Lundqvist was on Broadway first, of course, a rookie that season. Staal arrived two years later and has joined forces with the King playing for Tom Renney, John Tortorella, Alain Vigneault and David Quinn, a designer mixed bag of personalities and coaching philosophies if ever there was one.
Staal actually was supposed to make his debut in 2005-06. The 12th-overall selection of the 2005 entry draft had completed his OHL season with Sudbury and was on his way to Hartford to get a taste of pro life in the AHL playoffs.