New Jersey Devils’ Taylor Hall and Adam Henrique a Great Fit

The New Jersey Devils will have to think long and hard about their line combinations for the upcoming season. They will quickly realize that Taylor Hall and Adam Henrique should be paired together.

The New Jersey Devils made a huge addition to their offense this summer, trading for one of the most talented offensive players in the league in Taylor Hall. As the coaching staff thinks about who should be paired together in lines, they should heavily considered putting Hall on a line with Adam Henrique, as their games complement each other very well.

Hall and Henrique, interestingly enough, were teammates with the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL, and they thrived there. In their final season with the Spitfires, Henrique racked up 38 goals and 39 assists in 54 regular season games, and 20 goals and 5 assists on the way to an OHL championship. Hall put up an even more impressive 40 goals and 66 assists in the regular season and 17 goals and 18 assists in the playoffs. Hall was an unbelievable creator and scorer, while Henrique was a specifically strong scorer and solid creator as well. Those traits carried into the NHL.

Since joining the NHL, both players have continued playing well and building off of their success in the OHL, both physically and stylistically. Last season, Hall finished with 26 goals and 39 assists in 82 games. He was 42^nd in the NHL in goals and 33^rd in the NHL in assists, and at only 24 years old, he definitely has the potential to continue rising up the ranks in both of those statistics. Henrique put up 30 goals and 20 assists, his goal total being tied for 19^th in the NHL. He is also on the younger end of his prime, being 26 years old, and certainly has room for improvement.

Hall is an overall strong offensive player, but the biggest attribute he brings to this Devils team is his ability to create scoring chances for himself and his teammates. Hall can clearly pass well, as he has always had a high assists total going back to his time in Juniors. He prides himself on the ability to create scoring chances for his teammates. He was also 6^th in the NHL with 286 shots on goal last season, and only one shot behind Hart Trophy winner Patrick Kane. Shot creation has been identified as one of the most important factors for winning games, and he is one of the NHL’s best at this category. Hall can create shot opportunities for himself and his teammates very easily, and in turn, has strong puck possession statistics. His 52.5 percent Corsi rating, which is the ratio of a player’s team’s shot attempts to the total number, was above average and much better than most Devils forwards. Puck possession (Corsi or Fenwick rating, which is essentially Corsi but excludes blocked shots) is also a statistically significant factor in determining wins, and as fivethirtyeight.com notes, an extremely important factor in determining postseason success. His shot creation and puck possession skills will be even more valuable coming to a team that was more than 3 standard deviations below average in shots and second to last in puck possession.

While Hall’s main strength is shot creation, Henrique’s biggest offensive contribution is his exemplary shot conversion. He scored on about 20 percent of his shot attempts, which is significantly higher than the 9 percent league average. His insanely strong shot conversion skills are what allowed him to be tied for 19^th in the NHL in goals, despite not being a great shot creator. The Devils lacked shot creators as a whole, and although it may be unrealistic to think he will stay at or even top 20 percent again this upcoming season, playing with Hall would give him so many more opportunities that he could still top 30 goals next season. Henrique has always been a strong shot converter, as his career low in the NHL was his 12.3 percent mark in his rookie season.

Both players bring very different but complementary offensive skillsets, and their physical styles of play allow them to mesh those skills together. Hall is a strong skater, even finishing second in the fastest skater competition at the 2011 All Star Skills Competition. His skating ability allows him to hold on to the puck to find shot opportunities and opportunities for his teammates. Henrique, on the other hand, is a powerful player, and is able to force his body into ideal positions for goals.

Henrique’s physicality allows him to get to good spots for goals and also put forth a strong defensive effort, something Hall is not particularly known for and another reason why the players would work well together. Point Shares is a stat generated by Hockey Reference to estimate the overall effect a player has on a team’s success, essentially calculating how many team points a player creates. Henrique racked up 7.6 point shares last season, including 2.8 defensive point shares. His overall point share number suggests that he is a good player in the league, and his defensive point share number suggests he is a specifically strong defensive player. For some comparisons, his DPS number was right in between that of Jonathan Toews (2.4) and Selke Trophy winner Anze Kopitar (3.3), both of whom are known for being excellent defensive forwards. It would help the team’s defense to have Hall play with a stronger defensive player, and would be incredible if that defensive player were also a strong scorer. Henrique fits both of those descriptions, and that is why he would be a great partner on a first line with Hall.

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Hall and Henrique should play a lot together this season due to their complementary games. Hall’s shot creation and skating would mesh well with Henrique’s shot conversion and physicality. The Devils may want to go all out and put Kyle Palmieri, their other strongest offensive player, on a line with them and hope that this maximizes the team’s offense. If they choose to go with a more balanced line combination, perhaps they place one of the younger guys like Pavel Zacha or Reid Boucher on the first line with the hope that these two veterans help the young player develop. That is a tough call the Devils may experience with a lot in the beginning of the season. They are fortunate that two of their best offensive players fit extremely well together, and it seems clear that they should be playing together a significant amount next season.