Deja vu all over again. The Buffalo Sabres will hold Taylor Hall out of tonight’s game, interim head coach Don Granato told reporters including John Vogl of The Athletic. Hall should be used to this after going through the same process in December 2019 with the New Jersey Devils when trade talks had heated up with the Arizona Coyotes. The pending free agent forward will be dealt before Monday’s deadline after a brutal season in Buffalo. Darren Dreger of TSN reported yesterday that there is a sense trade talks were escalating, though nothing has been officially announced yet.
Coincidentally, it’s the Devils that the Sabres are set to play tonight and they’re holding out their own deadline asset in Kyle Palmieri. Arguably the two most sought after rentals at the deadline, they’ll have to watch their struggling teams do battle and hope the next stop is a more competitive one. The Sabres are now 8-23-6 on the season and have scored just 82 goals in 37 games, while the Devils aren’t that much better at 13-17-6 with 88 tallies in 36 games.
Hall specifically has been terrible for the Sabres, scoring just two goals on the season. Just one of those has come at even strength and his assists have even dried up of late. In his last 13 games, Hall has just three points and has generated just 24 shots on goal despite averaging more than 17 minutes of ice time. Still, it’s that 2017-18 Hart Trophy season that makes Hall such an intriguing factor at the trade deadline as teams will try to unlock that MVP-level ability.
Of course, it’s hard to see that season as anything other than an outlier at this point. Hall is now 29 and is on his 11th NHL season. Only twice has he recorded more than 65 points and only once has he broken the 30-goal mark. A huge reason for that is injuries, but his predilection for missing games is also something that should be considered when spending assets to acquire him at the deadline.
Still, with strong possession numbers for the Sabres this season and such obvious one-on-one skill, Hall is an enticing package for contenders. Buffalo’s asking price so far has started with a first-round pick, and though it may be difficult to secure that, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams will do everything in his power to maximize the return. It seems likely that Buffalo will retain half of Hall’s $8MM cap hit to bring more teams into the conversation, but it’s not entirely up to them on where he ends up. Hall has a full no-movement clause and can block a trade to any team in the league. That means the Sabres must work with him to find a fitting landing spot in the coming days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
“The pending free agent forward will be dealt before Monday’s deadline after a brutal season in Buffalo” (my add – for TWO bags of pucks and some dirt!) Sorry, Taylor, but this is what happens when you make noise in the offseason expressing the desire to play for a contender, then take the Buffalo wing sauce-stained $$$. We (the loyal PHR members) did tell you it would be bad there…
Well said. Everything 100% true.
I think I remember him saying he wanted to play with an elite center, which he did but he just ghosted out. He had the chance to head back to Edmonton to play with Draitsal or McDavid.
Scuttlebutt is that McDavid after living with Hall, wasn’t impressed with Hall’s partying and lack of professionalism which saw him get moved. I don’t think we will be seeing him in Edmonton again. Larsson trade is gaining some lustre with time.
Is it? Hall won a Hart in Jersey.
@bigguccisosa300 – But what has he done since? Right now, that looks like a career year for him. A major aberration, based on his post-award year play.
I mean I did say he could have gone back to Edmonton to play, but he didn’t. He still found that elite center he was looking for in Eichel. That was until he was injured. He fizzled out.
A semi-wake-up call that didn’t take hold. The MVP was the exception, not the norm. Do a search for “Andrew Ferrence comments on Oilers” and you can piece together what McDavid was seeing with Hall.
COME BACK HOME TO ……………………JERSEY!!!!!!!!!!
HELL……………………………………..NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EXPLAIN WHY? NO WAY HE GETS MORE THAN HES MAKING RIGHT NOW. TONS OF CAP ROOM. AND IF IT DOESNT WORK OUT AGAIN TRADE HIM AGAIN…
@pavilla11 – Why not? Well, for starters, there’s that pesky NMC he has. Sure he could (will?) waive it, but, honestly, it’s hard to see him going back to any of his previous haunts. EDM doesn’t have the cap room or real need, ARI probably still has a sour taste in their mouth after his less-than-stellar stay, and NJD is a long way off from being a top contender (in his eyes). If the Devs were really on the right track, he would have gladly stayed. He seems to be one of the guys who wants a Goldilocks-like “perfect fit.”
Its crazy to me if you can’t fetch a first rounder for him. Overrated for sure but, he’s still a good player. Sharks got a late first rounder for a good penalty killer in Goodrow just last year. And with the season only having 20 or so games left shouldn’t his salary be around 2.5 million come deadline time? If I’m making a cup run and have some wiggle room why not?
Hall to Colorado for Compher and Jost also Buffalo retains half of Hall’s Salary. That keeps the Avs under cap…who wouldn’t want to play with Nate Dog..
Sell two of your top penalty killers for a washed up has been, who you won’t sign to an extension and has shown that he can no longer produce? Uhhhh…. I’ll pass.
Yup, no thank you.
He thought playing for Krueger & playing alongside Eichel would help him have a great season. I hope the Sabres learn from this & for this upcoming offseason focus more on signing some college FAs & their own draft picks who want a opportunity to play.