Edmonton Oilers: Did anyone win the Hall-Larsson trade?
This doesn’t happen a whole lot in the NHL, but once in awhile a trade comes along that is a complete miss for both teams. The Hall-Larsson trade has swung in both the Oilers and New Jersey directions at different times, but the proper way to judge many trades is to wait and see how they’ve played out in the long term.
Well, it’s now been over five years since this trade came about, so why not take a look at it now?
Let’s start with the export of the trade by the Edmonton Oilers, Taylor Hall.
He started his time with the Devils by suffering from some injuries but still managed to hit the 20 goal mark (barely, as he got exactly 20) and 53 points, a 12 point decrease from his last season in Edmonton. Larsson, meanwhile, was a rock on D for the Oilers as they made the playoffs for the first time in 11 years.
Advantage Oilers.
But then Hall had his career season after that, scoring 39 goals and 93 points, winning the 2018 Hart trophy in the process.
Advantage Devils.
However, after that the wheels completely fell off of Taylor Hall’s career. The best he’s been able to do since then has been 11 goals, and only 37 points. You’d think that he’d use that banner season to build off of, but no that never happened, as it appears injuries entered the picture much more intensely.
He never played more than 33 games in a season for the Devils after that.
Wanting to go into a rebuild part two, the Devils traded Hall to Arizona for a king’s ransom. You could probably write a book on all the trades the Coyotes have mismanaged, but I digress.
He did pretty well in Arizona considering the limited amount of games he played, putting up 27 points in 35 games. But, seeing how much of a dumpster fire the Coyotes are as a franchise, and with his contract up, with injury issues and weak free agent market, he chose to sign for one year with the Buffalo Sabres for $8 million.
He had a terrible season for Buffalo, putting up only two goals and 19 points in 37 games before the Sabres shipped him off at the deadline to the Boston Bruins. He impressed there, on a much better team putting 14 points in 16 games, then five points in 11 playoff games (that was his third foray in the playoffs, after not getting a sniff with the Oilers, then one shot with the Devils and one shot with the Coyotes).
I’m guessing Hall has had his fill of making big money on lousy teams, as he recently re-signed with the Bruins at the rate of his old second contract, $6 million per season for four seasons. As a healthier player he probably could’ve commanded $10 million a season.
I wish Hall luck in that regard, except of course when he plays the Oilers.
But considering his injury history as of late, there’s risk that comes with this contract. Hall plays a rough and tumble power forward style of hockey, and that brand of hockey is harder on the body than a finesse game.
There’s no question when he’s healthy Hall is one of the top 10 or 20 forwards in the game. But, he’s only played a full season once in his 14 year career. That’s it, just once. You could call him a modern day version of Marian Gaborik.
He’s now at an age where all those injuries could catch up with him and he could be out of the game before his contract is up. But, Boston is a good team so if the investment pays off and gets the Bruins a cup before Hall’s career is up, then it’ll be worth it for both the player and the team.
Like Hall, Larsson also came to the Oilers in this trade with risk because he also played a hard physical style of hockey (in a different way) for his position.
At the time of the trade the Oilers were absolutely hurting for right side blueliners and they had absolutely bled goals against the season before. With Connor Mcdavid freshly in the fold, Peter Chiarelli thought he could get rid of Taylor Hall – dealing from a position of strength – to shore up a position of weakness.
There weren’t too many better in their own end than Larsson, but of course he was a top pairing guy for the Devils as well so they weren’t going to give him up easily.
But they were the opposite team of the Oilers at the time – most of their team’s strength was at defence, so they felt getting Hall back they could part with Larsson.
Like Hall, Larsson has had issues staying healthy. In his career with the Oilers, he only stayed healthy in two out of five seasons – and one of those was the covid-shortened 56 game season of last year. Who knows if he would’ve stayed healthy in an entire 82 game season?
Only an alternate universe where covid never existed could answer that question.
It’s also interesting to note that Larsson played a lot of minutes for the Oilers during his career here, and those injuries did eventually take a toll on his body. As the depth on the Oilers got better and there wasn’t nearly as much of a need to play Larsson so much, the last couple of seasons he got moved down to the second pairing as other guys – notably Tyson Barrie last season – took his spot on the top pairing.
Then Larsson’s team friendly deal was up last season, and despite his injuries he was still a name player as far as stay at home guys go. Ultimately Ken Holland did all he could to get Larsson to re-up here but it Larsson ended up signing in Seattle with the Kraken.
As far as I’m concerned, both teams lost this trade.
Larsson played in Edmonton longer than Hall played in New Jersey. New Jersey traded Hall so they have assets to show for his time with them, however those assets are picks and prospects which in the short term will not help them. Give them two or three seasons and they might see something there, but for now they will do nothing. Of course the Oilers lost Larsson for nothing in free agency, but that was for reasons outside of their control.
Both players were hampered by injuries but Larsson much less so than Hall. Hall’s dropoff in performance after his Hart trophy winning season was huge.
In my eyes, though, the important thing now is neither player is on the team they were traded to anymore.
If anything, the ultimate winners of this trade were the two teams that weren’t involved in it, the Seattle Kraken and Boston Bruins, where the two players are slated to play starting this upcoming season.
Let’s see what you have to say about it – no doubt at least one troll will show up in the comments section and make some obnoxious, ignorant statement.