The prevailing topic of this week has been Taylor Hall’s contract status. Unfortunately, the signs point to the New Jersey Devils going into the season with this situation unresolved.
Well, it’s been a roller coaster week for New Jersey Devils fans. First thing Monday morning, a report claimed that Taylor Hall was not ready to re-sign with the Devils “right now.” Then, a series of interviews between general manager Ray Shero, Hall’s agent Darren Ferris and Hall himself commenced. We learned that there wasn’t much truth to the report, but we may have learned something even scarier than Hall wanting to leave.
Everything we’ve learned is that Hall nor the Devils are in any rush to come to a contract agreement. They all say that July 1st is not their deadline, and they’re both willing to wait before coming to an agreement.
Well, that seems like a major problem. We spoke about this possibility as early as March. It honestly made a lot more sense back then. The Devils shouldn’t rush to give a player $11 million, plus it was likely the Devils would want to see a few games of Hall playing on that knee that forced him to miss more than half the season.
Then, the Devils won the NHL Draft Lottery. That changes everything. It changes everything now, and everything in the future. This speeds up the timeline and the Devils should shoot to compete sooner rather than later. That means knowing what Hall wants to do before heading into the season.
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Jack Hughes is going to be on the Devils this season. That means the Devils are using the first year of his entry-level contract. If they spend this season with the Hall situation over their head, then end up trading him sometime during the season, that basically wastes one year of the three years of affordable Jack Hughes.
However, if the Devils trade Hall prior to the season, it’s more likely they get young talent to help them this season. They can trade Hall for someone that keeps them in contention.
The Devils look like they’re further out of it than they actually are. The first half of the season was destroyed by Cory Schneider‘s issues in net and Keith Kinkaid‘s inconsistency. Once Mackenzie Blackwood came up and Schneider worked through his issues, Hall then went down. Then so did just about every single other player. Sync those two half seasons together, and the Devils would be much better.
That’s not to say that just adding Hughes puts the Devils into playoff contention, because it does not. However, it feels literally they are forced to make moves this offseason. They have a ton of cap space, a stocked free agent class, and at least five cap-strapped teams looking to make huge signings. The Devils could not try, and still end up with top-of-the-line talent.
Back to Hall. Everything points to us going into training camp with number 9 playing on that final year at $6 million. If the Devils let him, why wouldn’t he wait until the last possible moment before committing to a team?
So, we shouldn’t freak out if Hall isn’t signed on July 1st. However, if he’s not signed by July 31st, then things will probably last after opening night. That would be an issue. Other teams don’t like to trade NHL players midseason when going for a superstar, unless its a swap like the Sami Vatanen–Adam Henrique trade, which is rare, then it’s usually trading a star for future assets. Either way, hopefully were looking into this too much, and Hall signs by the end of next month.