Former Penguins forward Jordan Staal remains stout defensively with the Hurricanes

Jordan Staal saw some familiar faces Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Any time the former teammates square off in a game, Staal, captain of the Carolina Hurricanes, typically is deployed against one of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ franchise centers.

“They’re both great competitors,” Staal said after his team’s morning skate Thursday. “They’re up every night ready to go.”

Staal was once a vital component of the franchise’s renaissance in the mid-2000s and, along with fellow teenagers-turned-20-somethings such as Crosby and Malkin, he helped the Penguins once again become a Stanley Cup contender.

While Crosby and Malkin drove most of the Penguins’ offensive exploits at that time — and continue to do so — Staal was entrenched on the team’s third line and provided a sturdy defensive presence with some combination of Matt Cooke, Tyler Kennedy or Jarkko Ruutu on his wings.

In the 11 years since Staal left the Penguins via trade, things haven’t changed that much as far as what kind of game he offers.

In fact, he might be better at being a stout defensive presence in his 18th season.

Staal, now 35, typically centers the Hurricanes’ third line with Jordan Martinook and Jesper Fast affixed to his flanks. That trio has become a perfect representation of the aggressive man-on-man defensive style the Hurricanes almost exclusively deploy, at least throughout the bulk of play over 60 minutes of regulation.

“They’re three of the hardest-working guys in the NHL in my opinion, and they have been their whole (careers),” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That solves a lot of issues if you come ready to play and just be hard to play against. That’s pretty much what you get most nights.”

In most games, that line hassles and harasses the opposition’s top forwards. While they have been on the ice for nine goals for and 10 against in five-on-five play this season entering Thursday, they are decidedly in the black with regards to scoring chances.

Per Natural Stat Trick, they have been on the ice for more than double the high-danger chances for (68) than against (31).

“We’ve done a good job … of just defending hard and being hard to play against,” Staal said. “Creating offensive-zone time and wearing teams down and making them play in their own end and not making it a track meet. Kind of just making it grinding hockey. Those two guys do it well. When there’s a play to be made, they can make it. The puck hasn’t really gone in much for us this season, but I think it’s going to start rolling here soon and we’ll be a big difference for our team.”

The line was first pieced together last season.

“Just three guys that have similar thinking behind it,” Martinook said. “Our mindset is we’re going to play defense in the offensive zone for the most part. This year, it hasn’t gone in quite as much as we would want it to. But whenever you can control the play down in the other team’s end, you’re usually not playing in your end that much. Your best defense is when you’re down there (in the offensive zone). The three of us have kind of figured it out. We’ve been comfortable with each other for a long time now. We know where each other is going to be. That’s a nice thing to have.”

Much like the sturdy third line he pivoted with the Penguins, Staal is the keystone to the Hurricanes’ reliable third line.

“Defensively, he probably should be talked about as one of the best in the league,” Martinook said. “I feel like every time the best players come into our building, he’s matched up against them. It’s usually in his favor (with) how it turns out. … He’s such a big man, too, so he takes up a bunch of space. He’s been doing it for so long.”

Despite so much longevity in the NHL, Staal has never won the Selke Trophy, an award that recognizes the NHL’s top defensive forward as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association (PHWA).

Part of that has been because of the presence of former Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron, who won the award six times, beginning with the 2011-12 season.

“That guy was really good,” Staal said. “He was one of the best in the league at it. He was a special player, played hard every night and was just hard to play against. Just a guy you didn’t want to line up against. He won that trophy a lot and rightfully so.”

Bergeron won’t win it a seventh time as he retired this offseason, and that clearly opens things up for others in the field to claim the honor.

Brind’Amour — something of an expert on the Selke as he won it twice in the mid-2000s as a center for the Hurricanes — suggests Staal’s limited offensive figures stunt his credentials for the trophy.

“The award — and I agree with it 100% — it’s not (only) defensive,” Brind’Amour said. “You’ve got to be able to put up points. It’s that 200-foot game player. I think that’s the way it should be. Jordan’s numbers aren’t there in general because he doesn’t play on the power play. So it kind of hurts him there. I know if I had him in there, he should be in that consideration. It’s just not the role we use him in.

“Do I think he’s a candidate for that? Yeah. I don’t think he will (win) because there’s so many other players that have a different role.”

Staal has been a finalist for the award once — way back in 2009-10 with the Penguins — and finished fourth in voting for it last season.

(Editor’s note: This author is a member of the PHWA and gave a first-place vote to Staal for the award last season.)

“It would be a great honor, honestly,” Staal said. “I’m off to a tough start this year with that. It’s definitely more my style of hockey. Obviously, an award I’d love to win but I’ve got a lot of work to do to get in that realm again. It was an honor to even be nominated a few times.”

Staal has been a difficult matchup for any opposing forward dating to his early days with the Penguins.

But he’s found a role and a style of play with the Hurricanes that has amplified what was already a strength of his game late in his career.

“Our first goal of every game is giving (the opponent) nothing,” Staal said. “Being aggressive by playing strong defense. It’s a fun system to play. It’s being aggressive and creating offense off of turnovers. And being on top of guys and making sure they have no room.

“I’ve enjoyed playing it. It’s helped me.”