New Jersey Devils: 5 Things That Ruined 2019-20 Season

1. Taylor Hall wasn’t MVP Taylor Hall

It’s hard to explain what Taylor Hall was at the end of his tenure with the New Jersey Devils. He just seemed like he was tentative. Maybe that was because he was coming back from a knee injury, or maybe it’s because he didn’t want to get injured again before going into unrestricted free agency. Prior to trading him to the Arizona Coyotes, he had six goals in 30 games. He had a ton of assists and ended up with 25 total points, but he wasn’t the gamebreaker he was prior to his injury.

Maybe Hall was just a one-hit-wonder. It’s possible he just hit it into fifth gear, but he didn’t have the ability to do that every season. It’s also possible the knee injury really had lingering effects. We expected Hall to return for weeks in 2018-19. Maybe the Devils weren’t lying when they said he could come back at some point and that Hall just kept suffering setbacks that kept him from being 100%.

Either way, the Devils season predicated on Hall being at least a point-per-game player. He wasn’t, and the points he was getting weren’t really helping.

Something just didn’t work here. He was back with Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmieri, so it’s not like he really had to make it work with different teammates. This was the same line that elevated Hall to MVP status. Yet, he just didn’t get there in this season.