It sounds like the media wants a certain trade to happen involving the New Jersey Devils due to their struggling start. Sure, a trade might make sense but it’s way too soon to even be discussing such an idea involving Taylor Hall.
Despite the 2019-2020 NHL season not even being a month old, speculation has already run amok on what the New Jersey Devils will do with superstar left wing Taylor Hall. Yes, New Jersey is off to an abysmal start, having won just two of their first eight contests, which was more than enough to prompt hockey’s litany of media outlets, bloggers, so-called “insiders” and social media know-it-alls to ponder what teams would be the best fit for Hall, or already declare his days in New Jersey to be numbered.
But does a slow start after eight games really warrant this analytical hype surrounding the future of one of New Jersey’s cornerstone players? Of course not, but the media doesn’t care. Taking this factor into consideration, it’s appearing more evident that the hockey media’s impulsively rampant speculation on whether (or when depending on who you read) the Devils will move Hall is largely based on a want to see New Jersey trade their superstar player in a contract year, more than them thinking it’ll actually wind up happening.
The New Jersey Devils are barely one-tenth into their 2019-2020 campaign and despite a frustratingly sluggish start, we all know there is more than enough time for this team to turn things around—which they’re more than capable of doing. It’s also not uncommon to see NHL teams that wind up making the postseason with ease, struggle when the season begins, especially after an offseason of great change.
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Most content and analysis sensationalizing the prospect of a Taylor Hall trade eludes or flat out ignores this aspect.
This, of course, is in addition to other pertinent elements that ought to be considered, which the media largely sweeps under the carpet like the promising foundation Ray Shero has assembled to build around Hall, along with his admirable track record of retaining his team’s cornerstone players long-term, as mentioned in previous pieces.
We all know the media is an entity capable of convincing the masses to believe fabricated stories or narratives, while also being able to manipulate its viewers and readers to doubt or outright dismiss authentic happenings—especially if there’s an agenda to fulfill that’s at stake.
So, with that in mind, why is the desire to see the New Jersey Devils part ways with Taylor Hall dominating the headlines—which most viewers don’t even go beyond reading—and trumping the current reality that it’s probably too early in the season for such a topic to even be seriously discussed?
The first of two big factors that have incited this onslaught of conjecturing is a subconscious yearning to see the upcoming summer’s top unrestricted free agents actually remain unsigned going into July 1. Let’s be real—after the first few days of July pass, most of us are already looking up what names are headlining the following summer’s free-agent class and we instantly become awestruck at how deep the UFA pool appears when in actuality, a good chunk of those players will wind up re-signing with their current teams over the next 11 months.
The media is no different in this regard, especially since July 1 is one of the NHL’s busiest days. Fewer high-profile unrestricted free agents make for a less-exciting free agent frenzy and in turn, less to write about and discuss.
Admit it—you get a little annoyed or disappointed when you see an upcoming UFA re-sign with their current team midseason.
Regardless of how they happen, the hockey world loves seeing and talking about trades, especially those involving star-status players. They rile up fanbases of the teams involved, offer writers and insiders a chance to claim they correctly speculated or initially reported the deal and become a central talking point for days. Viewers eat up any trade-related content, even if the scenarios are totally outlandish. Given the early state of affairs in New Jersey it’s proved more than enough to subject Taylor Hall’s future with the organization to the media’s unrelenting pursuit of trade-related storylines.
While this might come across as perverse, you can argue that the NHL’s media outlets don’t like having reasons to cover the New Jersey Devils, in lieu of the league’s Canadian or more marketable teams. On draft day this past June for example, analysts and broadcasters did an admirable job at keeping their mention of New Jersey at a minimum and were quick to move onto other topics soon as the Devils made their pick.
Should this be the case, it would have been especially frustrating for the folks at TSN, Sportsnet and NBCSN to have no choice but acknowledge the Devil’s active offseason and see the organization appear ready to ascend out of rebuilding status, where many of the hockey world’s high-profile writers, analysts, and insiders (with the exception of most locally-based ones) probably feel that is where the team permanently belongs—it must have killed the folks at NBCSN to give the Devils four nationally televised games this season.
The hockey world was delighted when Zach Parise signed with the Minnesota Wild in 2012, a more reputable and bountiful hockey market than New Jersey and was beside themselves when Ilya Kovalchuk re-signed with the Devils in 2010. Those sentiments will probably be the same when Taylor Hall’s long-term future is decided.
The NHL and media outlets covering the hockey world would probably much rather see Hall play out the duration of his prime years on a Canadian or more marketable team, instead of an organization that had to pay indemnification fees for “intruding” on regional territory that was once split between two of the league’s more fruitful revenue sources in the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.
Simply put, it’s unnecessary and far-fetched to already be running away with trade speculation and rumors about Taylor Hall. Although the 2019-2020 season isn’t even 10 games in for the New Jersey Devils, their sluggish start was more than enough for the media to run wild and express a burning desire to see one of the league’s most dynamic players get traded, instead of taking the big picture into consideration and acknowledge that such talk is still premature.