New Jersey Devils: Taylor Hall Having Best Offensive Season In Team History

The New Jersey Devils have a long history of great seasons, including one year where they led the league in scoring. Taylor Hall is still having the best offensive season in team history.

It’s a hard argument to make, but Taylor Hall is having the best individual offensive season in the history of the New Jersey Devils. This season has been beyond special, whether it ends with Hall For Hart or not.

There are still six games left in the season, yet Hall is already ranked 9th in assists on the all-time list with 52, and 8th in points with 85. His per game numbers are already at the top of the list, and he could end the season with the record. Right now, Hall has 1.20 points per game. That’s currently beating out John MacLean’s 1988-89 season and Kirk Mueller’s 1987-88 seasons (1.18 goals per game). Obviously, that was a very different game. The eighties had a ridiculous amount of scoring.

Well looking closer, Hall ranks 3rd all time in goals created per game with .46.

The two seasons Hall is chasing is Patrik Elias in 2000-01 and Zach Parise in 2008-09. Elias was great on that 2001 team, but it was also in the midst of a juggernaut offense. He was part of the “A Line” with Jason Arnott and Petr Sykora. Those three made up one of the scariest lines in the NHL. Compare that to Hall-Nico Hischier-Kyle Palmieri/Jesper Bratt and it doesn’t compare. Still, Elias collected 40 goals and 96 points. The latter stat is the most in team history. That’s nothing to scoff at.

Parise’s season included 45 goals and 94 points. Obviously, Hall won’t be able to hit the goals number and has the most outside of chances to get to that points number. Parise took a ridiculous 364 shots to get to his ridiculous numbers. If Hall took that many shots with his 13% shooting percentage, he’d have 47 goals today. Obviously, you have to shoot your shots, but there is the argument that Parise was more quantity on his season.

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One thing helping Parise over Hall is he has eight game-winning goals to Hall’s six. That isn’t the end all be all, but it is something that goes in Parise’s favor.

What puts Hall over the top is his ridiculous points streak in the middle of the season. From New Year’s Day to March 7th, he scored a point in every single game. I’ll say that again, for two months, Taylor Hall scored a point in every single game he dressed. That is so ridiculous. It was tied for the best point streak since 1996.

This isn’t to downgrade the great seasons of Devils lore. Quite the opposite actually. Hall has had one of the greatest seasons in Devils history, and it makes us appreciate the past.

One caveat, Hall needs to get to 90 points in order to win this argument. He has six games to get the remaining five points. He’s on pace for 91 points, so he should get to it. This would make it the best Devils season (offensively) of all time.

All stats come from Hockey Reference.