Could the Islanders Come Calling for Taylor Hall?

Hall Day Long Baby! Bow to the King, Chewbacca!
Hall Day Long Baby! Bow to the King, Chewbacca!

Veteran sports journalist Larry Brooks recently wrote an article in the New York Post discussing what the New York Islanders need to do take the Eastern Conference and part of his post included a tidbit about a player on the Edmonton Oilers…

If we’re going beyond rentals, and why not, don’t the Islanders have enough to get Jonathan Drouin? And is there enough for Snow to pull off a deal with old trading buddy Peter Chiarelli, now in Edmonton, to get young Taylor Hall onto No. 91’s left wing? Wouldn’t that be something? – Larry Brooks

Now this is nothing more than commentary on the part of Larry Brooks but I feel that it’s not completely unrealistic. It’s pretty far out there but for the sake of igniting a bit of water cooler talk, I think we should delve into it.

Now the reason we can sit here and talk about the idea of moving Taylor Hall is simple, what’s he done the last 15 games when the team has needed him so badly? Well he’s contributed three goals in that time. Ouch. The good thing is that in the past three games he’s produced five points. But that 15 game stretch hurts the Oilers. He’s their main man this year and up until the loss to Vancouver on Boxing Day, he was getting points left and right.

Let’s be straight about something though, this is not an anti-Hall post. It’s simply me taking a shot at an idea put forth by another writer. Just for shits and giggles if you will.

The Return

So Hall is the Oilers (and possibly the NHL’s) best LW, he’s doing a majority of the scoring and the next person on the depth chart after him is Benoit Pouliot… So I’d be looking to toss a band-aid on there but my main concern would be on defence. With the Islanders that’s easy, Travis Hamonic. But it couldn’t be a straight up deal there, Garth Snow would have to toss in something else… Something big.

Brock Nelson is a guy that would have some value to the Oilers. He’s a big body, is about to put up around 200 shots this season if everything goes to plan and should be good for around 25-30 goals (which would be a career high but he’s shooting at 17% when his career average is around 10%, so we can expect that to come back to earth at some point). He’s good on the face-off dot (51%) and is above water (barely) on the CF% Rel (.2)

Ryan Strome is another player that is worth your time. He’s a forward that can play across the board with a solid build (6’1″ 199lbs). He put up 50pts in 81 games last season and then for whatever reason found himself on the outside looking in this season. He was sent down to the AHL for 8 games where he racked up 10 points in that time. He’s too good for the AHL and he needs to find a team that could accommodate him in the NHL if the Isles aren’t willing to do so. Not that there is any indication that the Isles are unhappy with Strome but he’s def. not getting the same push this year as he was last season.

But let’s say it’s one of those players, prospects, and a pick deals… We’ve got Hamonic already, so moving on to the prospects. Two jump out at me right away, Michael Dal Colle, a LW plying his trade with the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL, and Mathew Barzal of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Another prospect by the name of Ryan Pulock, a right-handed shooting dman, catches my eye a bit too.

Dal Colle hasn’t had an amazing season so far. He was cut from the Team Canada World Junior team as he wasn’t producing at the rate he was expected to (he had back to back 90+ point seasons before this one) in Oshawa before his trade to Kingston. But since that deal MDC has been scoring at more than a 2 PPG clip, so that is a plus. The other thing that is intriguing about him is his size, he stands 6’3″ and 198lbs according to eliteprospects.com and he’s a former 5th overall pick from the 2014 draft.

Mathew Barzal is a crafty playmaking centre who is remarkably good at reading plays. He had a few highlight plays at the World Juniors in Finland for Team Canada but was under-used in my opinion. He has an injury history but has moved on from that to put up very respectable numbers this year (45 points in 27 games so far). The Oilers did have a chance to select him but chose to move their second first round pick in the Griffin Reinhart trade where the Islanders landed him at #16 overall. Lastly, he was one of the final cuts at Islanders camp this year so there’s that to consider as well.

Ryan Pulock could be the powerplay quarterback the Oilers have been looking for since they signed Justin Schultz. He’s got a cannon of a shot and decent size (6’2″ 220lb.) but his downside being he’s not the most physical of players and his skating could use a bit or work.

As far as draft picks go, the Islanders first rounder is a given. At this point it is sitting at 23rd overall and we don’t know how the Isles will do in the final third of the season, so it could go up or down but they’re sitting in a playoff spot right now, so let’s assume it’ll stay in the 20-25 range thus giving the Oilers a plethora of options.

At that point in the draft they could add depth to the forwards by picking skilled players like Sam Steel (Regina Pats), hard-working two-way players like Tyler Benson (Vancouver Giants), or a sniper like Connor McDavid’s linemate last year, Alex Debrincat (Erie Otters). Chiarelli could possibly pick up another defenceman with the pick and I’m thinking the likes of the level-headed Kale Clague (Brandon Wheat Kings), the hulking Logan Stanley (Windsor Spitfires), or the uber-intelligent Libor Hajek (Saskatoon Blades).

Then again Edmonton could very well do as they did last year and use it in a trade too. Who knows?

The Conclusion

The team trading Taylor Hall in this situation never wins. As I said earlier, he’s one of the best left wings in the game if not THE best left-wing. He’s finally maturing into the guy we’ve been waiting for and he’s staying healthy! The other thing is, scoring is hard enough with one of the best in the league, you can only imagine how much harder it would be without him.

Grabbing a handful of prospects and picks with Travis Hamonic or acquiring Hamonic with Strome or Nelson would definitely add to the scoring quandary as oppose to solving it but I guess with that said, it would add depth to a team that looks to be lacking in it not only at the NHL level but at the AHL level and it could open up the possibility of adding a high-ticket marquee defenseman.

What say you? At the cost of an amazing hockey player, would you try to shore up the holes in the Oilers roster so that the foundation of the team was stronger going forward? Let me know in the comments below!

Thank you for reading! Take care!
BLH

Beer League Hero Written by:

I'm the Beer League Hero! I am from Camrose, Alberta but I make my home in Taipei City, Taiwan. I've been through the ups and downs and the highs and the Lowes, the Bonsignores and the McDavids, the Sathers and the Eakins but I'll never leave my Oilers, no matter what! They're with me until the end and then some. GO OILERS GO!

7 Comments

  1. Cody Anderson
    January 21, 2016

    No. Not even a consideration. Unless we were able to get an elete #1 dman Hall should be untouchable.

    Right now Mcdavid, Hall, Draisaitl, Nurse and Klefbom would be my core to build the team around. There are others I would not want to trade but for the right piece you listen.

    These are guys every team in the entire league wants to build around. They are not complimentry pieces.

    • Beer League Hero
      January 21, 2016

      You’ll never get an elite no.1 defender by trading a winger. You might get a good dman but not an elite one.

  2. oprah sucks
    January 21, 2016

    I’d do it in a heart beat and wouldn’t think twice about it. Hall gives oilers best return out of anyone. Oil need top d and then some, that’s how it gets done via trade. I don’t see scoring and issue without him even thou it appears that way this yr. Last season when hall was out, during that time, eberle and Nuge where the highest scoring forwards in the NHL and played on a line together with pouls as one of the top point producing lines in NHL. Now with mcdavid and draisaitl on the team I don’t see scoring an issue for extended periods of time if hall was gone and I would totally entertain the idea of trading him, moving Leon to the wing when mcdavid comes back. Of course this WAS a serious thought of mine until the Nuge broke his hand.

    • Beer League Hero
      January 21, 2016

      Yeah, I’m kind of in the same boat as you here. But I’ve always been the sort of guy that thinks the team could sacrifice a top player to shore up in other areas. And now I believe that the team isn’t dependent on one or two players to put up the points anymore. So it’s as good a time as any really.

  3. Sergio Julio Davissima
    January 21, 2016

    In Hall you have one of the best (if not the best) Left wing in the game at an exceptional cost of 6 million per year for the next 4 seasons after this one. You do not trade that for Hamonic and Duct tape for all the holes in the lineup. The idea is beyond absurd. Under a salary cap, trading to fill up holes is not how you win. Having a team cost-controlled for what it produces (i.e. bang for your buck) at each position is the most important determiner of success. I’ll take Halls points at 6million over Toews’ points at 12 any day of the week. Edmonton has 12 million dollars regularly sitting in the press box, or the minors this year leftover from the old regime. Chiarelli didn’t permanently eat any of it with buy-outs, and I don’t think that he is overly worried if the team doesn’t make the playoffs this year. On top of that, consider the man games lost this year to quality players; a healthy Edmonton would already have arguably challenged for a playoff spot. Besides all of that, it’s just fun to watch Hall play. The tip o’ the hat to Draisaitl is still one of my favourite moments from the year, and that’s what hockey is ultimately about… entertainment. What the league should fear most is an Oiler bottom five finish again.

    • Beer League Hero
      January 21, 2016

      Great comments Sergio! I guess my response to them is, what do you do with a team that is built on scoring skill that isn’t scoring?

  4. Bryan_Griffin
    January 21, 2016

    Eberle, Yak, Shultz, Purcell and RNH (once healthy) are the pieces to trade away, Hall is a piece you trade for!

Comments are closed.