New Jersey Devils: Five One-For-One Trades For Taylor Hall

Matthew Tkachuk

The Devils could use some grit. They have guys like Miles Wood and Wayne Simmonds, but if they could get a guy that could score in bunches on top of being gritty, that would be a really nice addition. Matthew Tkachuk is one of those guys. If you think of a player like Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins, that is what Tkachuk can become.

Hall was born in Calgary, so that might also be some incentive for each team to make this move. Hall might be okay with playing for his hometown Flames and the Devils would be getting a player of Tkachuk’s caliber. He is probably going to get paid in a similar range to what Hall is going to get and Tkachuk is only going to turn 22 over the 2019-20 season.

He is a restricted free agent much like Marner. He isn’t in as messy of a situation as Marner is and you can blame him still being unsigned on him waiting for Marner to set the market. He had 34 goals and 43 assists last season. That is really good production for a 21 year old and he would be an awesome addition to the Devils if Hall didn’t want to stay.

He clearly isn’t as good of a player as Hall when healthy, but Tkachuk is evolving into an elite player and a one-for-one trade in this situation is one that would benefit both teams. Tkachuk could end up being a guy who scores as many points as Hall one day and he brings another element to his team that not many players can bring. He is going to be so good for so long and any team would be lucky to have him.