NHL Notebook: Why the Taylor Hall deal is a win-win for all parties; some winners & lots of losers in NHL this week

Even before he donned a black and gold sweater for the first time, a humbled Taylor Hall — his morale dashed after four miserable months in Buffalo — expressed admiration for his latest landing spot in Boston, his fourth club in two years.

For Hall, who stressed in his first Zoom conference call as a Bruin that he was “not the most confident hockey player” after toiling with the Sabres, a fresh start in Boston offered more than just a prime opportunity to punch a ticket to the postseason for just the third time in his 11-year career. 

It also created a situation in which Hall — drafted No. 1 overall by the Oilers and tabbed as a franchise star at various other stops in Buffalo and Arizona — would no longer have to be tabbed as “the guy” in a dressing room anchored by foundational franchise stars such as Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, David Pastrnak and Tuukka Rask.

"That was one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to play in Boston," Hall said back in April. "That's why I'm so happy that I'm traded here. I've been the focal point on a lot of teams in my career. I never made myself the focal point. That's just the situations that I was in. ... going to Boston, there are so many great players on that team - Hall of Famers - guys that have had just amazing careers, careers that if I had anything like that at the end of my career, I'd be super happy with.

"I don't expect to come in and light the league on fire or anything like that. I just want to come and win games. I want to be a part of a winning team that has something that I haven't had before. And that's what makes me most excited."

Hall did what he could to keep his expectations in check, but his production on the ice told a different story. 

Whether it be the mid-season boost that comes with joining a playoff-bound club, the relief of no longer being THE featured cog in a lineup or the benefit of getting paired with a couple of effective playmakers in David Krejci and Craig Smith — Hall revived his plummeting stock during his six-plus weeks with Boston, posting eight goals and 14 points over 16 games.

And even though his praise of Boston during his opening presser could just be shrugged off as the usual spiel spilled out by a player landing with a new team, it was far from the first time that Hall waxed poetic about his new situation during his short stint with the B’s in 2021.

After years spent trudging through rebuilding clubs or weighed down by unrealistic expectations, Hall sure seemed “reborn” in Boston, as teammate Curtis Lazar put it.

"I know the Bruins' history and just the aura around the team, it's been a lot of fun to play for," Hall said. "I love my time here. The city is amazing. Just walking around and the energy in this area for the team, in general, has been really fun to be a part of. … "It's been 16 games it's probably been some of the most enjoyable hockey I've ever played in my career. I really hope that there's more to come."

Much to Hall (and the Bruins’) delight, there indeed will be much more to come. 

On Friday evening, the Bruins checked off one of the top objectives on their offseason to-do list, signing Hall to a four-year contract extension with an average annual cap hit of $6 million.

For Hall, it keeps him in place in a market where he can and should contend for a Cup for at least the next year or two — with the veteran likely sacrificing a larger payout on the open market in order to remain with the B’s. 

“I’m not looking to absolutely maximize my value at this point in my career,” Hall said during his final presser of the season last month. “I’ve been fortunate enough to make some good money in this league. At this point, it’s about more of a fit for me than, maybe, money or a long-term thing. I just want to find a home for the next few years here. We’ll see what happens.”

Sure, a $6 million annual payout still tabs him as the fourth-highest paid Bruin on the roster at this current moment, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Hall could have secured a six or seven-year deal out on the open market with an AAV at $7 million or above. 

With other priorities factoring into Hall’s decision making beyond just securing the top payout, Hall ultimately valued Boston’s contention window, his experience in the B’s locker room and his role on the club above all else — even if the term might have been a bit below what he was originally looking for. 

“I knew right away, after playing five or six games in Boston, I wanted to be a part of the group and it was up to me to try to play well and show up well enough to have them want me to be a part of it. ... I think the window is still there, at least for another few years,” Hall said. “A group of guys that’s committed to trying to make a Stanley Cup come to Boston, and that’s all I want to be a part of. You can’t, in this league, sometimes you get caught up trying to be on the perfect team. I was super happy in Boston; I think we have a great group of guys to accomplish something special.”

Hall seems to have finally found a home in Boston, but his excitement should be equally met (if not exceeded) by the Bruins — who have managed to lock in a legitimate top-six weapon at both fair value and especially on a term that falls in line with this team’s contention timeline.

“Very excited, as I mentioned,” Don Sweeney said Friday of Hall’s return. “With Taylor wanting to be a part of our group and be a Bruin and working with Darren Ferris to find a common ground was really important to us. I think you can see from Taylor’s comments, he’s excited to be a part of our group. I think he’s felt maybe the most comfortable he’s felt in a locker room in some time, and I think it showed up in his game. 

“He arrived in Boston with not as much confidence as he’s had previously, despite being such an accomplished player. I think now, he’s really wanting to put his feet down and settle some roots for him and his fiancé to really take it as far as he possibly can. He’s motivated, he knows the team and what we’re trying to accomplish, and he wants to be a part of that. I think that’s an important message to send to all of our young players as well as our incumbent players that they represent a core of the Boston Bruins and Taylor Hall, with the special qualities he has, wants to be a part of that core, was important. We’re excited to have him back.”

Of course, the Bruins will need Krejci (or another top-six pivot) in the fold in order to get that second line playing at its top level, but locking up Hall secures a player that over the span of a full season could tally 30 goals and record 70+ points for the B’s — providing some much needing scoring pop beyond Boston’s triumvirate of Bergeron, Pastrnak and Marchand.

From just an offensive standpoint, Hall sure seems like the perfect complement as a scoring winger further down on Boston’s depth chart — but when you factor in his transition game and his two-way capabilities, this deal looks better and better, especially when compared to other pricy free agents available. 

Thanks to his wheels, Hall is an effective weapon when it comes to pushing the puck through the neutral zone — often slicing through 1-3-1 structures before the opposition can even get set up. 

Boston already has some gifted puck-movers on the roster, especially on the back end with Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk, but adding Hall to the mix gives the B’s yet another skater that can push the puck out of their own zone in a hurry — limiting the amount of time spent defending in around their own net. 

When you add that with transition ability with what was largely a surprising development in terms of Hall’s defensive talent (using his speedy to regularly break up scoring chances), it should come as no surprise that the Bruins outscored opponents, 15-1, during Hall’s 200 minutes of 5v5 ice time during the regular season. 

Will Hall be as good as he was during that 200-minute sample size last season? Boston sure hopes so, but it does seem unrealistic to hold such lofty, video-game like production over the span of a full 82-game campaign. But on the flip side, Hall is also far better than what we saw in the second round against the Islanders, when the winger was one of many B’s regulars shut down by a stingy New York club.

If he falls somewhere in between as a legitimate top-six winger that can help drive play at even-strength play and elevate the rest of his teammates, Hall is well worth his price — which, in the same vein as what we argued with Brandon Carlo’s extension, should get better and better as the salary cap ceiling inevitably rises in the post-pandemic market. 

A win-win, all around.

OTHER NHL NOTES:

While some Bruins fans might be exasperated by Boston’s inactivity on Friday during a day in which many teams swapped players, maybe the best course was to stand pat, because there were some DREADFUL deals struck leading into the first round of the NHL Draft on Friday.

The Flyers might have snagged Ryan Ellis from the Preds earlier this week, but they undid just about all of that progress when they moved Robert Hagg, a FIRST-ROUND PICK (2022) and a 2023 second-round pick for … Rasmus Ristolainen.

Rasmus …. Ristolainen. 

Yes, this guy. 

Even if you don’t put much merit into the underlying metrics and other fancy stats, it doesn’t take a whole lot of film to see that Ristolainen (as intriguing as he is as a big-bodied blueliner), just isn’t worth moving a first-round pick. Not only was this a dreadful deal for Philly in terms of the return, but it also reset and boosted the market on actual GOOD defensemen. If Boston fans were worried that acquiring a guy like Mattias Ekholm was going to cost a solid player and a first rounder — well, this just about guarantees that, if not raises the asking price if Nashville even moves him. 

Add in other deals like the Rangers dumping a legit top-six winger in Pavel Buchnevich to St. Louis for a bottom-six grinder in Sammy Blais and a second-round pick (this swap and inking Barclay Goodrow to a SIX-YEAR DEAL further reinforce that Tom Wilson absolutely broke the Blueshirts), and there were some crazy money and trades tossed around and struck over the last few days.

We’ll see what happens when the next feeding frenzy begins on Wednesday, but Boston might have been wise to sit on the sidelines given the asking prices and cash that some teams were willing to ask for (and pay).

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Perhaps the best example of the Bruins opting to walk away from a deal when the costs got too high was the Canucks’ mega-deal with the Coyotes. At the end of the day, Vancouver was the lucky team that acquired Conor Garland — a legitimate top-six winger that I tabbed as a perfect fit for Boston in terms of their search for some scoring punch this summer.

And yet, while the Bruins and I’m sure a number of other teams are steamed that they came up short in the Garland sweepstakes, the cost to acquire him was far too much considering what else Vancouver GM Jim Benning had to take on (and cough up). 

Even though the Canucks cleared some temporary cap space by moving Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel, they created an even larger problem down the road by taking on Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s albatross of a contract. 

Even if Arizona is retaining 12 percent of OEL’s contract, that still means that Vancouver is still on the hook for around a $7.26 million cap hit for the veteran defenseman until 2027 (!). While Eriksson, Beagle and Roussel’s contracts will come off of Arizona’s books next season, the Canucks are now saddled with a contract in OEL that … frankly, is going to get even worse over time. And that’s saying something, because the unfortunate truth is that Ekman-Larsson has been producing at a replacement-level value for a few years now. 

Oh … and did I mention that the Canucks also gave up the NINTH OVERALL PICK this year (and both a 2022 second-rounder / 2023 seventh-rounder)?

It stinks that Garland isn’t donning a black and gold sweater and playing for his hometown club next year, but the Bruins were very, very wise to not play ball with the ‘Yotes and that dreadful OEL contract. 

Have fun, Vancouver — especially with guys like Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes due to get paid.

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You want to find a major winner from this week? Charlie McAvoy — because after seeing a ton of young defensemen like Seth Jones ($9.5 million AAV through 2030), Cale Makar ($9 million AAV through 2027) and Miro Heiskanen ($8.45 million AAV through 2029) get paid, it only reinforces that the B’s top defenseman is going to make a TON of cash next summer when he hits restricted free agency once again. 

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We close out our weekly notebook by re-hashing what just about every other outlet / individual has already stressed: It’s an absolute embarrassment that the Montreal Canadiens selected Logan Mailloux with the 31st overall pick on Friday night — just days after the prospect asked NHL teams to not draft him after he was fined for an offense of a sexual nature in Sweden in 2020. 

Last year, Mailloux was fined by Swedish police after showing a photo to his teammates via Snapchat of him and a woman engaged in a consensual sexual act — with the photo taken without the consent of the woman. Even though Mailloux was not arrested, he was fined under Swedish laws for both invasion of privacy and defamation.

After reports of the incident started to leak out, multiple teams vowed not to select Mailloux, leading to him eventually renouncing his candidacy for the draft.

And yet, even with Mailloux opting out of the 2021 Draft, the Habs still opted to take him — in the first round, no less — just three days after Mailloux’ initial statement. 

Embarrassing.