No, it's not the Cleveland Browns that I am writing about, its the New Jersey Devils that have disappointed and with a superstar that is due for free agency at the end of the season that has underperformed as much as his team, the time to make a move has come.
Taylor Hall, who won the Hart Trophy just two seasons ago, but has been disappointing after winning the award, was traded to the Arizona Coyotes this morning along with Blake Speers.
The Devils return for Hall? Prospects Kevin Bahl, Nick Merkley, Nate Schnarr, the Coyotes first-round selection in the 2020 draft and Arizona's third-round pick in the 2021 draft with conditions.
The 2021 pick will become a second-rounder if Arizona either wins a first-round series in the playoffs or can re-sign Hall after the season.
If both of those stipulations occur, the Devils would receive the Coyotes first-rounder in 2021 to complete the trade.
Taylor Hall was struggling a bit on a bad team in his return from knee surgery and it was apparent that neither Hall nor the Devils were exactly thrilled with the current situation with both the player and the team.
Hall scored six goals with nineteen assists in thirty games this season for the Devils and had been scratched from his last two games against Colorado and Arizona with trade talks beginning to peak.
Hall did score goals in two of his final three active games and with his ability, Hall could be just rounding into top form.
Blake Speers played three games for the Devils in 2015-16 and hadn't returned since.
The 22-year-old center has played for the AHL's Binghamton Devils for the last three seasons and in ten games for the B-Devils this season managed one assist.
I've noted before that I'm not as knowledgable about hockey prospects as I am the other three sports, therefore I don't have a lot of opinion on the three newest members of the organization from personal knowledge.
The centerpiece of the trade appears to be nineteen-year-old defenseman, Kevin Bahl.
The 6'7 Bahl was the Coyotes second-round pick in the 2018 draft and is currently playing for the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League.
Bahl has five goals and fifteen assists this season in twenty-eight games for Ottawa, which is an offensive improvement over his past seasons, but this often happens to the older players in junior hockey.
Bahl is a physical defenseman and from what I'm reading, appears to be a player that could be a second pairing steady defensive blueliner.
Nick Merkley was a highly rated player entering his draft year of 2015 and was thought to have a chance to be selected in the upper portion of the first round.
Merkley was a first-rounder, albeit with the final selection of the first round by Arizona.
At 5'11, the twenty-two-year-old Merkley's smaller for a center and is more of a playmaker than a pure scorer and he has spent the last three seasons for the Coyotes AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, where he scored three goals with thirteen assists in twenty-six games.
Merkley was assigned to AHL Binghamton.
Center Nate Schnarr was the Coyotes third-round selection in 2017 and broke out in his final year of junior hockey with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League with a 34 goal/68 assist final season.
Schnarr has good size at 6'3 and is reported to be a good skater as well.
Schnarr turns 21 in February and could turn out to be the surprise of the trade.
Schnarr is playing his first pro season and scored one goal with eight assists in twenty-two games at AHL Tucson and like Nick Merkley, was assigned to Binghamton.
The Devils didn't add a top prospect, although they did add three players that will be possible future Devils, in the trade.
The draft picks will hopefully become players that help them rebuild, but I wouldn't count on the 2021 pick moving into the first round range, although it could become a second-rounder with luck.
I suppose that if Ray Shero wanted a first-round pick involved, the Devils weren't going to receive a top prospect as well and conversely, had Shero desired a prospect of that level the Devils weren't going to add the first-rounder.
That says volumes for what Shero was looking for in return for Taylor Hall and when you consider those wishes, I can't argue with the trade.
It's about what I expected and now we wait to see how these young players and draft picks eventually contribute to the New Jersey Devils future.
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