Taylor Hall has been sitting for just over a week now while waiting to see where he’ll be traded to. It appears his new team may soon be known as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter links) that the Sabres have made progress on the trade front today and there are believed to just be three teams left in the mix for his services. Buffalo will undoubtedly need to retain a sizable chunk of his $8MM cap hit (they can hold up to half) and as we’ve seen with recent notable moves, a third-party facilitator could also be in play. While the 29-year-old is having quite a rough season with just two goals in 37 games, he could be an intriguing wild card for whoever gets him down the stretch.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- The Blackhawks and Nikita Zadorov have held talks on a new deal, report Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (subscription link). Chicago is interested in keeping the defenseman in the fold but with Zadorov holding arbitration rights, there is some risk to tendering him a $3.2MM qualifying offer. Chicago’s initial offer is believed to be around $3.5MM while Zadorov’s camp is looking for something starting with a four so there is a bit of ground to be made up. As Zadorov’s not a pending UFA, this isn’t a situation that necessarily has to be resolved by tomorrow’s trade deadline.
- Devils defenseman Dmitry Kulikov was held out of tonight’s lineup as a precaution heading into the trade deadline, Corey Masisak of The Athletic was among those to note (Twitter link). The 30-year-old has two assists in 38 games this season while logging 19:33 per night. With a $1.15MM cap hit, Kulikov is an affordable depth option that is quite likely to move by Monday.
- The Penguins welcomed back Teddy Blueger to the lineup against New Jersey as the team announced that he was activated off injured reserve. The 26-year-old has been quietly effective this season with 15 points in 28 games. Meanwhile, the Pens also transferred winger Brandon Tanev to LTIR retroactive to April 3rd. For the time being, that gives them another $3.5MM in cap room to work with and if they believe that he’ll miss the rest of the season, that could give them some more flexibility to try to make a splash at the deadline.
The Avs have roughly 8 mil of cap space assuming EJ and Francousz remain on IR. I think Taylor Hall makes way too much sense here.
As an avalanche fan, I say hell no. I am of the opinion that halls best days are behind him. He is overpriced and and horribly overrated.
Actually, you and I see eye to eye M34, but if Sakic does this, lets be honest we’re probably wrong and Hall’s a steal
it all depends on cost. If the cost is a 1st round pick to get hall at 4m or less, it is a good pickup regardless of what you think he does after this year.
Connor McDavid Travis Konecny Tyler Toffoli Pius Suter Brandon Sutter Max Pacioretty Joel Farabee David Pastrnak Jonathan Huberdeau Jason Spezza Scott Laughton Connor McDavid David Pastrnak Chris Kreider Sam Gagner Isac Lundestrom Chris Kreider Dillon Dube Noel Acciari Adrian Kempe Dylan Coghlan Leon Draisaitl Kirill Kaprizov Mika Zibanejad Robby Fabbri Derick Brassard Andrew Copp Mika Zibanejad Rocco Grimaldi Bryan Rust Carter Verhaeghe Phil Kessel Joonas Donskoi Mathew Barzal Brad Marchand Alex Wennberg Jakob Chychrun Michael Bunting Patrice Bergeron Leon Draisaitl Kevin Fiala Viktor Arvidsson Ryan O’Reilly Auston Matthews
Those are the players who have scored more goals in one game this season than Taylor Hall has all season.
And yeah yeah yeah, he plays in Buffalo and they are awful, so what can you expect from a Sabre?
Except, Sam Reinhart Victor Olofsson Brandon Montour Casey Mittelstadt Curtis Lazar Tobias Rieder Rasmus Ristolainen Tage Thompson Dylan Cozens Jeff Skinner Rasmus Asplund Rasmus Dahlin Riley Sheahan Colin Miller and Henri Jokiharju are or were all Sabres, too and they have more goals than Taylor Hall.
Buyer beware.
Thank you for this. This illustrates my point perfectly.
And Matt Martin, a 4th liner has scored 4 more goals than Hall has. Another point is that the Sabres have played better since they sat Hall.
I too would much rather have Landeskog mover Ovechkin. That is what we are doing here right? just comparing a normal half season sample?
He’s been disappointing no doubt but won a hart trophy 3 years ago so let’s just relax
They have also got their #1 goaltender back at that same time. Ullmark at least doesn’t let in horrible goals to start every game.
The only team that I don’t think would be a making a big mistake by trading for Taylor Hall would be the Isles.
Even as a shell of himself, Hall would be a good fit with Barzal and Eberle even if all he did was drive the net and back off the D to give the other two room to snipe. IF he regained some of his form, that line could be lethal.
As he was a UFA, Taylor Hall could have possibly signed in Colorado (maybe for a few bucks less) and been part of a team that has been trending up for the past couple of years. He chose more $$$ in Buffalo with almost no chance to make himself or the team look good. I still maintain he has this Goldilocks thing going where it seems like he wants a team to change to his liking to put him in a better position to succeed, rather than telling a team “Hey, I’d love to be a part of this and I think I can contribute a lot to help the team win.” And, as for the Hart trophy award, I will add that some past winners are driven to prove that when they won, it wasn’t a fluke and they push to be even better each succeeding year.