6 games in Taylor Hall has half the Devils' goals

[joestevens29]

Trade is working out well for both teams

So far, the trade has worked well for both teams. Hall has been as advertised and Larsson has opened the eyes of the skeptics as to just how good he is defensively. Hall is surprisingly good in the defensive zone. His OT winner the other night was started by him breaking up a cross ice pass in tight.

I hope this continues as well.

 

[Bleedred]

Had the primary assist on Zajac's gwg

Just realized this and came back to correct myself.

I was really enjoying joking about how he was on pace for exactly 0 assists this season.

 

[CaptainSexyPants]

Agree with most of what you say but Lucic is a sizeable downgrade on Hall not a modest one. I said all along that the Oilers will never get the right value for their stars because every GM and their mom knows they were desperate for D.

This is such a misconception. How many 23 year old, high draft pick, current top pairing RHD with upside are traded...like...ever? So how can people say "oh wow, that value was just insane, they could have done it for less"?
No. As Shero has said all along, and as all past evidence indicates; these guys aren't available. It doesn't happen without Hall.

 

[None Shall Pass]

Hey, screw you! WE'RE happy for YOU guys!

Oh that's what we're going to do, we're gonna fight about it huh, well forget it, because WE'RE so much happier for YOU guys than you could ever be for us!

 

[Soundwave]

I'm still kinda iffy on this trade buuuuuut ... Lucic does replace a lot of the offence Hall created. Hall has 6 points and is -1, Lucic has 5 points and is +3. I expect Hall to outscore Lucic, but if Lucic replaces even 70% of Hall's offence and you add in the net gain of Larsson.

I think it was a tough choice when Chia realized he could sign Lucic basically for free (asset wise) AND they had Puljujarvi (another winger) fall into their laps.

That's two more wingers, do you say no to Lucic and lose his strength/size alongside McDavid. If you sign him AND keep Hall, then you have limited options of upgrading the blue line.

It was kind of a perfect storm for Hall to go. I would've preferred to do Eberle for Larsson, but obviously I don't think New Jersey was doing that.

The other issue with Hall in Edmonton was he simply didn't play well with McDavid. Of all the wingers we tried with McDavid he was honestly probably the worst, because he needs to carry the puck and that's just silly when you have Connor McDavid on your line, but Hall really isn't built to be a "just go to the net and play a simple game" type of player. McDavid/Hall was a disaster, it was only after McDavid got off Hall's line that his scoring exploded (1 point in the first 4 games, most of which was with Taylor Hall, after that he had 47 points in 41 games away from Hall).

 

[Zippy316]

I'm still kinda iffy on this trade buuuuuut ... Lucic does replace a lot of the offence Hall created. Hall has 6 points and is -1, Lucic has 5 points and is +3. I expect Hall to outscore Lucic, but if Lucic replaces even 70% of Hall's offence and you add in the net gain of Larsson.

I think it was a tough choice when Chia realized he could sign Lucic basically for free (asset wise) AND they had Puljujarvi (another winger) fall into their laps.

That's two more wingers, do you say no to Lucic and lose his strength/size alongside McDavid. If you sign him AND keep Hall, then you have limited options of upgrading the blue line.

It was kind of a perfect storm for Hall to go. I would've preferred to do Eberle for Larsson, but obviously I don't think New Jersey was doing that.

The other issue with Hall in Edmonton was he simply didn't play well with McDavid. Of all the wingers we tried with McDavid he was honestly probably the worst, because he needs to carry the puck and that's just silly when you have Connor McDavid on your line, but Hall really isn't built to be a "just go to the net and play a simple game" type of player. McDavid/Hall was a disaster, it was only after McDavid got off Hall's line that his scoring exploded (1 point in the first 4 games, most of which was with Taylor Hall, after that he had 47 points in 41 games away from Hall).

I could definitely see this.

I think this is where the trade makes so much sense for both teams. Devils don't have a center to carry their line right now. A lot of the offense flows through the wings, namely Hall and Cammalleri when he gets going. Hopefully, Zacha ends up being good enough to drive his own line separate from Hall. If Hall can get going with either Henrique or Zajac eventually, it would give us a solid top nine for the next few years:

Hall - Zajac/Henrique - Palmieri
xxxxx - Zacha - xxxxxx
xxxxx - Zajac/Henrique - xxxxx

Devils will also have Cammalleri for the next couple years as well, then a few good LW prospects. I'm really hoping Bennett can find his game in NJ, I think he could be a nice compliment alongside Zacha long-term.

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

Hall is a beast, particularly at even strength. He got traded from Edmonton because of how good he was, not bad. It is very rare for a young core defensemen to get traded from a team that has no contract or lockerroom reasons to do so. The Oilers had to heavily overpay.

The Oilers definitely lost the trade on value but gained heavily on positional need, as well as recouped a bit of the value by signing Lucic.

If Hall were still on the Oilers he would be tearing it up now that we have actual breakout passes.