New Jersey Devils: Remembering Hart Trophy Winner Taylor Hall Fondly

The New Jersey Devils have traded away Taylor Hall. It is not a fun time right now, but we can look back and remember him fondly.

The New Jersey Devils have traded away their franchise player. Left-wing Taylor Hall has done some great things with the Devils, but his time has come to play for another franchise. His prime didn’t really match the timeline of the Devils expected contention. You could classify the trade of Hall for Adam Larsson as a good trade for the Devils, but it still didn’t work out like it should have. The thing is, although the Devils didn’t do much with Hall in the lineup, he did give us reasons to remember him fondly.

The first one is obvious. He was one of the very best players in the 2017-18 season. Hall scored 39 goals and 54 assists for 93 points. That led the Devils by 51 points and earned him the NHL’s Hart Trophy as the Most Valuable Player. It was as glorious of an individual season as any player in New Jersey Devils history. He literally took the Devils and dragged them into the playoffs. Devils fans around the world will always remember that amazing season.

There is also the “lotto luck” thing that was fun for Devils fans to rally around. Taylor Hall was the first-overall pick by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2010 NHL Draft. The following year, his Oilers won the lottery again and selected Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with the first-overall pick. Then, they remarkably won it again in 2012 for the third straight year and selected Nail Yakupov. He then went on a dry spell until the Oilers won it again in 2015 for the right to draft Connor McDavid.

Nobody really thought that luck would be needed when he came to New Jersey, but one year later the Devils won the NHL Draft Lottery. They selected Nico Hischier with the first-overall pick. Hall and Hischier led the Devils to the playoffs in 2017-18, but would need Hall’s lotto luck in 2019 and they got it. They selected Jack Hughes with the first-overall pick in this year’s draft. The team Taylor Hall played on won the lottery in five out of his 10-year career. It was a fun ride for Devils fans to play along because it helped ease the pain of the team performing so bad it needed a lotto win.

There is no reason for Devils fans to not remember Hall’s time in New Jersey fondly. They still boo Zach Parise every single time he comes back to Prudential Center, but he left under different terms. Hall was going to leave early, but at least he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in an extension so the Devils got something for him. He was a great player for New Jersey and gave the fans some good time. At this point, there are lots of reasons for fans to root for him and the Coyotes to do well. If they win a round and resign him that conditional third-round pick becomes a first so we might as well cheer them on. Thank you for the memories, Hallsy.