Well.... no offence here but...
Palmieri didn't really get that type of performance until NJ (due to lack of depth) gave him a top 6 role.
Same thing with Stempniak...was given a larger role, more minutes = more production...
New Jersey has always struck me as the type of team that showcases players due to lack of depth. These players do better because they don't really have a lot of offensive talent to slot into a top 6. Didn't the same thing happen with DSP too? I can't remember....
Anyways I expect hall to do very well in NJ...
It's not really lack of depth. Until last year, I'd say we ONLY had depth. Players have come here recently and done well in top-line roles because we lack top end talent, not depth. Palmieri got the opportunity to play top 6 minutes and shined. Same with Stempniak and DSP to an extent.
Even before adding Hall, going into this season.. I felt fairly good about the forward group. We seem to have a lot of depth now and our bottom 6 is completely overhauled. We were one of the few teams in the league to have 2 30 goal scorers (and could have had a 3rd if Cammalleri stayed healthy) so our top 6 really wasn't a problem. Our bottom 6 was atrocious, however.
This year, our bottom 6 will likely feature 4-5 players who weren't on the NHL roster to begin last year. Adding Hall gives us the extra bonus of being able to bump all our LW down a peg, meaning potentially having Cammalleri on a 2nd line and Boucher on the 3rd line (unless one shifts to RW to play on the top line). It will be better and depending on Zacha's play on the 3rd line, could be great.
We won't be leading the league in scoring any time soon but I think that with Hall and the rest of our work over the last few years coming to some fruition this season.. I'd bet we will be closer to average than last... which will be perfectly fine with Schneider. We'll likely drop off in GA a bit too with losing Larsson so we'll see if its enough.
Best part is we are very quickly becoming one of the fastest teams in the league. We'll likely not get credit for awhile but Hynes system preaches speed and we have a lot of it + added another speedster in McLeod this draft. Our transition game has really suffered in past years and scoring off odd man rushes has been a weakness.. so this will help us drastically.