By: Brennen Krikorian
Well, it finally happened.
On Monday, the New Jersey Devils agreed on a trade with the Arizona Coyotes to send the former first overall pick and Hart Trophy winner, Taylor Hall, to the desert. New Jersey will receive forwards Nick Merkley and Nate Schnarr, defenseman Kevin Bahl, a 2020 first round pick, and a 2021 conditional third round pick.
It was known for weeks that Hall would inevitably be traded and he was even a healthy scratch in his last few days as a Devil.
As for the team that would trade for Hall, that remained a mystery up until the very end. Colorado and Montreal seemed to be the early favorites and Florida was able to make a strong push towards the end, but Arizona was ultimately able to part ways with enough assets to acquire the star winger.
The Hall saga was dragged out longer than anticipated due to the fact that Hall will be an unrestricted free agent, and many teams were cautious in offering a deal due to the uncertainty of him re-signing.
If he decides to explore his options in free agency, the trade could be detrimental to the Coyotes future, but GM John Chayka was willing to take that risk in exchange for a potential playoff run.
Arizona currently sits tied with the Edmonton Oilers atop the Pacific Division with 42 points, but with the addition of Hall to go alongside guys like Phil Kessel, Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller, and Derek Stepan, this team now has both the talent and depth up front to be true contenders.
As for New Jersey, it seems pretty safe to say that their 2019-2020 season is over in terms of winning a lot of games, but they can still be successful in other ways.
Head coach Allain Nasreddine will look to grow their young guys such as Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, hopefully building through the draft in the future.
Devils fans cannot be too upset with the departure of Hall since they basically stole him from Edmonton in the Adam Larsson trade. He ended up being enough to single-handedly bring the Devils to the playoffs during his 2017-2018 MVP campaign.
Hall is expected to make his debut for Arizona when the Coyotes face off in San Jose against the Sharks.
Cover Image via: Mark Zaleski/AP Images
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