Taylor Hall?
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WarriorofTime
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Good enough to be in-demand as a trade piece, not good enough to stick around as a centerpiece. Starting from the time after Oilers traded him and thereafter, he would have already been old enough to not really be a rebuild type of piece. He had nearly 600 games played between his first two teams, that's a full career for a lot of players. He won a Hart at 26, and then was "UFA years" from then on. A bit of bad luck I suppose that he has seemingly found his way on bad teams so often.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
I can’t speak to any specific team he’s played on, but in general he’s always been a player whose physical attributes make you expect something which isn’t actually going to happen. I can see how he would go through a cycle of teams giving it a shot, realizing his ceiling is pretty mediocre for what he’s being paid, and moving on to other opportunities.
Oilslick941611
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He’s a very uninterested player that doesn’t stick around on teams because in reality he’s just a journeyman mercenary because he’s always injured
BB88
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- Jan 19, 2015
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HugeInTheShire
You may not like me but, I'm Huge in the Shire
His refusal to sign a long term deal when he was in his prime coupled with injuries and diminishing ability made him a veteran depth piece instead of a core piece.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
eojsmada
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- Oct 23, 2022
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He sustained a couple of injuries early on, to his legs, that have caught up to him and took away his skating speed, which was his best skillset.
Aside from his MVP "Half-Season", he hasn't really been that dominant in the league. Only one year of 30 or more goals. Kind of a Phil Kessel clone, but with a tad less goal scoring potential.
Aside from his MVP "Half-Season", he hasn't really been that dominant in the league. Only one year of 30 or more goals. Kind of a Phil Kessel clone, but with a tad less goal scoring potential.
He had that one monster year on the Devils, but other than that he hasn't really been a truly game changing player. A great player, sure, but not a franchise cornerstone caliber guy.
That + rumors of him having a less-than-stellar attitude in the locker room over the years and it's easy to see why he hasn't really stuck anywhere for too long.
It did seem like he was a good fit on the Bruins, and didn't seem to be a problem in the room, but unfortunately he ended up being one of the easier pieces to move in an offseason where they had to shed cap.
That + rumors of him having a less-than-stellar attitude in the locker room over the years and it's easy to see why he hasn't really stuck anywhere for too long.
It did seem like he was a good fit on the Bruins, and didn't seem to be a problem in the room, but unfortunately he ended up being one of the easier pieces to move in an offseason where they had to shed cap.
We'll look back at Taylor Hall as a former #1 pick who had a reasonable career, but could and should have been a whole lot more.
Bounces R Way
Registered User
Just loves skating his big horsey face straight into stuff. Great way to spend half your career on the IR.
Mix of a decline in play plus him hitting free agency during pandemic. Oilers were a bit forward heavy so they traded him for a D. At least publicly the Devils had interest in keeping Hall as he approached free agency after 2019-20 but Hall was looking for a more competitive situation. Devils traded him to the Coyotes but I forget if they had any substantive talks about an extension.
Hall hit free agency with the flat cap, so that limited the amount of suitors and he surprisingly signed a 1 year deal with Buffalo. Buffalo was going to miss the playoffs so they traded Hall for what they could since he would have just left via free agency. Hall then signed with Boston but would become a cap casualty.
Hall hit free agency with the flat cap, so that limited the amount of suitors and he surprisingly signed a 1 year deal with Buffalo. Buffalo was going to miss the playoffs so they traded Hall for what they could since he would have just left via free agency. Hall then signed with Boston but would become a cap casualty.
oXo Cube
Power Play Merchant
He was also very good in Edmonton from 2012 onward outside of some injury troubles. The guy had a decent length stretch as a high end NHL player but it flew under the radar because he was never on a good team and usually on a team that was flat out garbage.
94 Oil Drops
Admirer of cinema, history, and hockey.
I remember how incredibly reckless he played in his younger days in Edmonton. He seemed to get blown up by a huge hit while flying at top speed once or twice a game. He got injured a few times even back then. He was always overrated. Good player but definitely no franchise player.
wintersej
Registered User
Bruins would have been happy to keep Hall but the cap crunch of COVID plus the bonus heavy Bergeron and Krejci deals made it tough.
Mostly this. A lot of it is circumstance. Buffalo was a stopgap UFA destination while his preferred team cleared cap. Buffalo's motivation was to sign a player that they could ship off at the deadline. By most accounts, Boston would have kept him if they didn't get into cap trouble like they did.
If not for Peter Chiarelli and cap issues, he's probably a two team player to this point.
A couple of freak injuries, though. Corey Potter skated on his face in warmup, and he blew out his knee as a rookie fighting a legit enforcer because the leadership on the Oilers at the time didn't do their job.
vadim sharifijanov
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I never thought of it like that but there are some parallels. Quebec/Colorado was forward heavy and they'd eventually sacrifice Nolan to get a PPQB in Ozolinsh. Sharks traded him to Toronto for a similar prospect/futures package that the Devils got sending Hall to Arizona. Nolan then hit the lockout shortly thereafter and bounced around three teams. Hall's contracts came against the flat cap and he's bounced around.
eojsmada
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- Oct 23, 2022
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Don't get me wrong, he was a good player in his first few years, fell off a bit, and then had a revenge season after being traded for Larsson. But he feasted on the "in between years" when teams were transitioning from having 3-4 pylons on their team because they could clear the front of the net and hit everything in sight. But as the league adjusted to faster, more agile, first pass-type of defenders, Hall simply no longer had an advantage.
winnipegger
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- Dec 17, 2013
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Always seemed like the physical attributes outweighed the mental attributes. Kind of like a more talented Evander Kane.
He spent the better chunk of the first part of his career as a quality first line caliber winger with a couple big years mixed in. Since then injuries and natural decline have rendered him into a useful middle 6 player, but not someone you want to pay $6 million to.
Good but not great career.
Good but not great career.
BonMorrison
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Injuries got him. I still like him and hope he wins a cup one day. He sucks now but when he was in his very short-lived prime, he was electric.
vadim sharifijanov
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yeah they have always been connected in my mind, although i’d never thought of the ozolinsh/larsson parallel before.
both toolsy wingers who maybe you would want to talk yourself into as the centerpiece of a contender, but they each fell short of that. tbf, has any power winger since howe been a legit contender’s cornerstone?
but career arc-wise, both guys also had two similarly-timed injuries that sapped their momentum at key moments of their careers. each guy also had a nice two year stretch early on (’92 and ’93 for nolan, ’13 and ’14 for hall) where they were knocking on elite status, followed by an injury that interrupted their momentum. then later on, on team #2 and at practically the same age, they each had their superstar season. nolan was 5th in hart voting, second in goals behind a bonkers bure year, 6th in pts (2 pts out of 4th place). then, after a killer first round against the presidents trophy-winning blues, got hurt in the second round, which lingered into the next season and that was the end of the brief superstar owen nolan. hall won the hart but statistically was also 6th in pts and farther back than nolan was. both their teams just barely squeaked into the playoffs, although NJ didn’t win its first round. hall did also get hurt the next season and never got back to his superstar form.
