Colorado Avalanche Shouldn't Trade for Taylor Hall

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The Colorado Avalanche have been linked to rumors of a Taylor Hall trade. However, the move overall wouldn’t benefit the team.

The Colorado Avalanche are finally getting healthy again with the return of their star winger, Mikko Rantanen, and soon their captain, Gabriel Landeskog. At the time of writing, they were securely in a playoff position — second in the Central Division — despite missing those two players for all of November.

Despite that fact, some fans are suggesting that the Avalanche trade for New Jersey Devils winger Taylor Hall, who reportedly wants out of that franchise. (The Devils just fired their coach, so who knows if that will change the dynamic.)

In fact, hockey writer Scott MacDonald put out a Twitter poll, and 52% of the voters chimed in for bringing Hall over.

The rumors of Hall’s imminent departure from New Jersey are based partially on the idea that the Devils can’t re-sign the pending unrestricted free agent. Hall, who turned 28 last month, is understandably frustrated with the team’s losing season (second to last in the NHL).

Hall said of his aspirations:

“You want to play on the best team possible. I’ve played nine seasons in the NHL and only won one playoff game. You want to be on a team that’s not only a playoff contender but a playoff contender every year. I only have so many more years left in this league, and so many more chances to win a Stanley Cup. It hasn’t even come close yet, so I kinda wanna make up for lost time.”

Enter the Colorado Avalanche, definitely one of the “best teams possible.”

Indeed, rumors are also based on the fact that the Devils have been sending out scouts — and they’ve scouted heavily in Colorado.

Makes sense from Hall’s perspective — and from the perspective of the Devils since the Avs have a lot of delicacies to choose from.

However, does it make sense from Colorado’s perspective? No, no it does not.

The Colorado Avalanche Already Have a Winning Combination

It took several years and a lot of pain to build up the depth the team has now. We suffered through the worst season in the cap era (the Detroit Red Wings are on pace to break that unenviable record) only to lose the draft lottery. (Yes, we ended up winning, but we didn’t know what a force Cale Makar would really be.)

The Avalanche have also made some painful trades to get other pieces that are contributing to their success. I know a lot of people are still mad at Matt Duchene, but he was a fan favorite and our top producer for a lot of years. GM Joe Sakic traded him away to get, essentially, Sam Girard and Bowen Byram.

Colorado then traded away another, even bigger fan favorite, Tyson Barrie, to get the second-line center they lost in Duchene — Nazem Kadri. Meanwhile, they did a lot of work in scouting to build up a prospect pool and a decent supporting act for their team core.

They’re showing success — like I said, second in the Central after making the playoffs twice in a row. As-is, they’re considered at least contenders for a deep playoff run, if not the actual Stanley Cup.

Why would the team sacrifice any of that hard-fought foundation for a rental player? Yes, Colorado has delicacies to spare — we earned them the hard way.

The Colorado Avalanche Would Have to Give Up too Much

The New Jersey Devils aren’t going to just give away Hall — otherwise, they’d just let him walk in free agency. No, they’re going to want some dear pieces back, even if Hall is a rental player.

For some stupid reason, Avs fans keep trying to throw Tyson Jost into the mix. I love my Josty, but he’s on pace for just 30 points this season — I don’t think the Devils will be chomping at the bit for him.

Naw, dawg, they’re going to want at the bare minimum Conor Timmins, more likely Bo Byram. To start. The going rate for stars always seems to start with a prospect, an NHLer, and a draft pick. Shane Bowers and Martin Kaut are names often mentioned by pundits. I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked for J.T. Compher, Andre Burakovsky, or Calle Rosen.

That’s in addition to one of Bowers, Timmins, or Kaut plus a draft pick. Remember, Colorado doesn’t have a second rounder next year. If the Avs aren’t offering up Byram, the Devils will want that first-rounder, not the third.

Granted, they’d only consider giving up that much if they could guarantee signing him. Which brings us to our next issue.

The Colorado Avalanche Would Have Difficulty Paying Hall and Keeping Other Assets

The Avalanche have avoided cap hell. They would be in cap hell if they tried to sign Hall at the end of this season.

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Right now, the team has just over $5 million in cap space. That’s not going to be enough for Hall, who’s currently making $6 million.

Now, granted, the team has money coming off the books next season — Tyson Barrie’s and Brooks Orpik‘s retained salaries. They’ll also have some UFAs they might not re-sign, such as Colin Wilson, Mark Barberio, and Matt Nieto. Maybe they’ll even let some of their RFAs walk.

However, Girard is going to get a $4 million pay raise next year, which will impact the cap. Burakovsky is earning the right to real money next season. Nikita Zadorov is one of the pending RFAs.

What’s more, the team has to replace exiting players. So, even if they let UFAs and RFAs walk, they have to replace them with some bodies.

Let’s say they manage to fill the team with a few cheap journeymen so they don’t go over the cap with a Hall signing. What about the following season? (Because I don’t envision signing Hall just for one extra season.) None other than our captain, Gabriel Landeskog, and prize rookie, Cale Makar, will be looking for new contracts.

Landeskog might not get a huge bump in pay from $5,571,429, but Makar will be seeing a lot more money from his ELC $880,833.

So, in addition to the assets the team would have to give up just to acquire Hall, they’d likely have to give up more in the next couple years to keep him.

The Colorado Avalanche Don’t Need the Other Taylor Hall Problems

Taylor Hall has upside. Playing on some bad Edmonton teams, he cracked the 80-point mark once, the 60-point mark once, and the 50-point mark two other times.

His career season was the year he stole the Hart Trophy from Nathan MacKinnon — 93 points. He followed that with an injury-plagued season that saw him earn just 37 points.

This season, he’s played in all of New Jersey’s games and has earned 21 points. That puts him on pace for another 60+ point season.

That seems like a low return for potentially beggaring our future.

What’s more, let’s look at the fact that Taylor Hall’s big claim to fame, besides that one Hart Trophy, is getting his team first-overall draft picks. Why is that? Why do his teams do so poorly when he’s on the roster?

Looking at his quote from above, I was uncomfortably reminded of a similar quote from Duchene when he was first traded to Ottawa. Fans and even some pundits claim Duchene is a locker room cancer, which is why his teams don’t succeed with him on the roster.

What if Hall was the same? What if we at least partially beggared our future just to get a locker room cancer back on the team? All for the hope of a 60+ point season. We’ve already got four players not named Nathan MacKinnon on pace for that or better this season.

And they’re part of the fabric that’s already making this team successful.

MacKinnon and Makar Honored in November. dark. Next

I get it. You see something shiny like Taylor Hall potentially come up for grabs, and you want to reach out. However, I trust Joe Sakic is more grounded. He’s not going to mortgage the future for a rental player — not when he’s worked so hard to create the successful Colorado Avalanche team we already have.

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