To say this season hasn’t turned out the way Devils fans all hoped would be a complete and utter understatement. This season has been a disaster when it was supposed to be a big step forward towards building a legitimate playoff team. Instead we have a team that doesn’t play with consistent structure and discipline which is a coaching problem and a whole other story. Anyway, since the season has and will continue to keep free falling, it would be best if the New Jersey Devils trade Taylor Hall as soon as possible and get assets that can help this team now and in the future. You don’t want another John Tavares situation where you wind up losing your best player for nothing! Trade talks between the New Jersey Devils and other teams have started to pick up rather quickly. Obviously, it would be better not to trade Hall as he is the Devils most dynamic offensive player they have. However, it appears a trade out of New Jersey is inevitable nonetheless. From everything you hear in the rumor mill, it sounds like Taylor Hall won’t re-sign in New Jersey anyway and wants to see what he can get on the open free agent market. It’s not hard to sell Taylor Hall to anyone and he’ll have plenty of teams who’ll throw plenty of cash his way.
Besides the fact the New Jersey Devils are towards the bottom of the league standings, there’s another reason I think the team should and will trade Taylor Hall. It really bothered me at one point this season to hear Hall complain about the Devils fans booing the team for his team’s poor performance this season. The team and him haven’t lived up to the expectations of being a playoff contender and have been a complete and total disappointment. Hall is and should be aware that the Tri-State area is very tough and critical of all of their sports teams. Hall has shown that he clearly can’t handle a market that’s tough and critical. He also couldn’t handle the criticism in Edmonton either when the team couldn’t live up to expectations. Why keep around a guy that doesn’t want to be here and can’t handle fair criticism? Devils teams of the past had guys who can handle criticism and adversity. It brought some of those teams the three Stanley Cups that they have. As gifted of an offensive player as Hall is, its time to move on and help build this team for the future. The Devils are in an excellent position with their salary cap management. They have plenty of cap space to spend and have the ability to add more offensive weapons if they so desire.
What a Taylor Hall trade should look like:
1st round draft pick, top level young NHL roster player or NHL ready prospect, and another prospect or draft pick. Trade will most likely be conditional as well if Hall re-signs with the team that acquires him.
Prediction: Taylor Hall is traded by the end of 2019 or at the trade deadline in February 2020
