Could Jordan Staal win the Conn Smythe Trophy?

The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-3 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final Tuesday night, tying the series at two games a piece.

Hurricanes’ captain Jordan Staal scored twice, including the game winner, and now has five goals in the series, including at least one in each game.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Staal’s performance in Game 4 and where he ranks among the Conn Smythe Trophy rankings.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ve been someone who has been pushing this, but Jordan Staal has a path to being the Conn Smythe trophy winner. He was, honestly, the only reason I didn’t want to just hand it right to Mitch Marner, even though I still think there could be a case for Marner to win if Vegas doesn’t.

I just look at what Staal has done in this series. He’s now up to five goals, how important he’s been shutting down Jack Eichel. He is so impactful in so many different ways, and after the game, we talked to a couple of different Hurricanes players. “He’s a moose, he’s a horse.” Jackson Blake called him a “dog.” All these things to describe Jordan Staal.

He was so good in Game 4 and if you have a statment signature game like that in a Cup Final, on top of how good he’s been in the other games, you can be the MVP.

Carter Hutton: You know what I love about it? In the day and age now when it’s all about flash and skill and toe drags and speed, he plays the game the right way, right? He uses his body, he finds positioning. He’s never going to wow you. Even if you watch that game on Tuesday, there’s nothing to his game other than size and smarts and leadership, all those little things.

This is great for younger players to watch. You can still be successful just playing the game the right way.