Devils trade Taylor Hall to Coyotes

When you are two months into a disappointing season that fans expected to be so much better, changes are going to be made.

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.

Hall of a debut in Devils home opener

Taylor Hall scored twice on the power play in the second period to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 victory in their home opener over the visiting Anaheim Ducks.
Cory Schneider finished with 23 saves in net to earn the victory..
The Devils travel to Boston Thursday to face the Bruins...

Hell Raisers

1) Now that is what this team has been lacking since the loss of Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk!
Taylor Hall brings the type of finisher both around and outside the net that Devils fans have missed so much.

2) Watch how Taylor Hall slammed Mike Cammalleri's shot off John Gibson into the net.
That is a finisher,my friends and the lack of those type of players on this team still shows as Adam Henrique would show hitting the pipe.
The Devils still need some more offensive firepower,but a player such as Taylor Hall shows the foundation for our rebuild has been poured...

3) Cory Schneider gets ripped a lot in my house and not by me either (The ladies here are far from fans of his),but his stop of Chris Wagner on a penalty shot was big and not for a save either.
Schneider's maneuvering to force Wagner into doing things that he didn't want to with the puck,resulted in Wagner losing control and the puck skimmed helplessly into the boards.
It's not always the flashy things that make one an excellent goaltender...

4) A rough night for the man that is loved by Rachel as Adam Henrique committed two dumb penalties,one of which created the penalty shot and hit the pipe on a wide open scoring opportunity.
I know that anything negative written about "The Most Handsome Man Alive" (Rachel's opinion,not mine!) doesn't go well,but gotta call them straight if you want to be credible...

5) I think Pavel Zacha has the potential to be a offensive force (although maybe not right away) and I think the Devils need to start the learning curve now with keeping him on the team.
I really liked his passing and he set up Devante Smith-Pelly up for five shots last night.
Keep that up and the third line might surprise some people with production with Beau Bennett joining in...

6) Loved the crowd last night-the place was really rocking and brought back old memories of better days.
However,I hate the "new tradition announcement" before the game of after the anthem conclusion of some fans shouting "We Are" followed by "Jersey".
It brings to mind Penn State and that is neither New Jersey or Classy considering what that school allows....

Podcast:Cavaliers,Taylor Hall,Buddy Ryan and more!

The podcast returns with the Cleveland title experience,the fun to watch Hagerstown Suns,the passing of Buddy Ryan,more on the Devils trading for Taylor Hall and a big announcement!

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!!!