PITTSBURGH — Eric Staal may have won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes, but to new Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick Jordan Staal, he's merely a big brother who also plays hockey.

Even if Eric Staal plays hockey very, very well.

"I mean, he's just my older brother — he's no great hockey player or anything like that," Jordan Staal said Wednesday during his first visit to Pittsburgh. "He's just like any other guy. To me, him winning the Stanley Cup gives you the sense I can do the same."

So much for older brother hero worshipping. It's exactly this kind of attitude — that Jordan Staal wants to be better than his already accomplished sibling and not a copy of him — that partly led the Penguins to draft him No. 2 overall on Saturday.

Unlike the Penguins' top pick of a year ago, Sidney Crosby, the 17-year-old Jordan Staal knows he's no lock to make the NHL next season. Despite his size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) and scoring skills (68 points in 68 games for OHL champion Peterborough), Staal may play one more year in juniors before reaching the NHL.

Like any player, Staal would rather be in the NHL in 2006-07, but will be patient if he isn't. Only not for very long.

The way Jordan Staal sees it, he can't start achieving what his brother did until he plays at the same level. Eric Staal, at age 21, had 100 points in 82 games during the regular season and 28 points in 25 playoff games as Carolina won its first Stanley Cup.

"The only way I can beat him is win more cups than he does, but that's still a long ways away," Jordan Staal said. "It's going to be hard to make this team and make an impact. I'm still only 17 but, as long as I keep improving, hopefully I can get here."

Especially since the Penguins have so many other promising young players — rookie of the year runner-up Crosby, 2004 No. 2 pick Evgeni Malkin, 2003 No. 1 pick Marc-Andre Fleury, plus defenseman Ryan Whitney — ready to surround him.

That is why Staal doesn't consider it disrespectful to set a goal of winning not only the one Stanley Cup but multiple NHL titles.