Hurricanes GM Ron Francis on Eric Staal's future in Carolina: 'It depends on our budget'

Carolina Hurricanes general manager Ron Francis has only been on the job for a month and is generally playing his cards close to the vest - at least regarding his eventual plans for the team. 

Francis, however, spoke with CBC's Elliotte Friedman this week about a variety of topics including the availability of young sniper Jeff Skinner and captain Eric Staal. On the subject of Staal's future with the Hurricanes, Francis gave his most intriguing answer: "It depends on our budget."

The Hurricanes hewed close to the upper-limit of the salary-cap this past season (capgeek.com estimated their spending at $64.24 million, the upper-limit was set at $64.3 million), but that's atypical for the Raleigh-based club. Generally the Hurricanes have operated within the confines of a strict internal budget, and finished the year with $9.5 million in salary-cap space (or more) in three of the past four seasons.

The upper-limit of the salary cap is poised to come in somewhere between $69-70 million for the 2014-15 NHL season, which would leave the Hurricanes - who have roughly $52.7 million committed to 14 players - with nearly $18.5 million in space (and well clear of the cap floor). 

Despite Francis' cryptic comments, the Hurricanes would appear to have some cushion in maneuvering between both the floor and the ceiling. It also shouldn't be too hard for a team that operated at the upper-limit of the salary cap this past season to reduce costs (in comparison with this past season) without trading a big ticket item like Staal. This type of layered flexibility isn't suggestive of a team grappling with some type of imminent cap or budget "crunch". 

Staal has two seasons remaining on his current deal, which will pay the dependable scoring centerman $18.5 million in total salary with an annual cap-hit of $8.25 million. He has a full no-trade clause on his contract.