Devils acquire Taylor Hall!!!

We just discussed the minor trade that the New Jersey Devils made at the draft with the Pittsburgh Penguins for Beau Bennett,but little did I know that Ray Shero had a bomb to drop and that it would be a huge one as the Devils traded Adam Larsson to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for former first overall pick Taylor Hall.

The one for one trade is very rare in all sports,but especially in hockey.
Taylor Hall is a talented 24 year old left wing that as noted was the first pick in the 2010 draft.
Hall scored 132 goals in his six NHL seasons and two of those have been shortened by injury,so this is an impact scorer and I'd go as far to rank Hall as one of the top five left wings in the game.
Hall scored 29 goals last season with 36 assists and possesses the type of offensive game that makes plays around the net.
Taylor Hall is the type of offensive talent that the Devils haven't had since the days of Zach Parise and arguably ever.
Does that sound like hyperbole?
Perhaps,but Taylor Hall is the type of talent that Devils fans have craved-as in the type of talent that make losing worth losing to add special types of players.

As you can imagine,landing a player such as Taylor Hall does not come cheap and it didn't as the cost was Adam Larsson,the Devils top young defenseman,coming off his best year as a Devil.
Larsson was just starting to put his game together after a rough start under former Devils coach Peter DeBoer and was showing signs of being a top notch defender.
Adam Larsson will certainly be missed in New Jersey.

It seems that the vast majority of commenters and columnists online are calling this trade a clear win for the NJD,with one writing that "this may be the most one sided one for one trade of all time".
Now I don't know if I'd go that far,but I do see the Devils the clear winner of this deal and that's coming from someone that is a big fan of Adam Larsson's game.
The Devils have suddenly upgraded their offense considerably with Taylor Hall and Hall is signed for the next five years at an extremely team friendly contract (6 million per year).
This does hinder the defense a bit as younger defenseman as Damon Severson,Jon Merrill Steve Santini etc are going to have to pick up their game and one might have to emerge even higher than expected to reach the level of Larsson to hope to fill the void left by the trade.

I'll miss Adam Larsson,but the New Jersey Devils and Ray Shero made themselves one great trade today.
Our Devils just became a much more fun team to watch today!!!