Taylor Hall was brought to New Jersey this summer to meet with season-ticket holders and get to know the fans of his new team. GM Ray Shero and coach John Hynes asked him to come in for an extra day so they could get acquainted with the talented forward they acquired in return for defenseman Adam Larsson.
They picked him up from his hotel and took him to breakfast for a chat. They wanted to get to know him a little better. They also wanted to share what they expected of him this season, what they wanted to see from him.
When the Devils coach walked away from that meeting, he left with a better understanding of how the trade impacted Hall.
“He was a motivated player,” Hynes said when we chatted on Monday. “I think he took being traded personally. There were some personal feelings there… a guy who has pride, plays hard, and had some real stock in Edmonton and being a solution there.”
The shocking day that included two blockbuster trades changed everything for Hall and Larsson. It did for Shea Weber and P.K. Subban too, dealt within the hour of each other.
In a scheduling quirk, the four teams involved in those trades will be squaring off this week with Weber in Nashville tonight and the Devils playing the Oilers on Saturday. In may be the next step in providing more closure to these deals, and it’s also another opportunity to evaluate the impact of those trades on each team.
On the day the trades were made, June 29, we issued grades immediately as part of an evaluation of these trades that will probably span years. As the season nears its halfway point, here are the midterm grades of these two monster trades:
The trade: Edmonton sends winger Taylor Hall to New Jersey for defenseman Adam Larsson
Original Grade: New Jersey: A+
Updated Grade: New Jersey: A+
There’s no reason to lower this grade from a Devils perspective despite their struggles in December. When he’s been healthy, Hall has been a great fit in New Jersey. He has 25 points in 28 games and in Hall, Hynes has found a player willing to work on rounding out his game.
“He understands his natural talent, his speed and compete level, driving play in the offensive zone, scoring chances and things like that,” Hynes said. “There are also parts of his game he realizes as a player, need to be better to be a playoff team.”
Those things include using his teammates more, understanding how disciplined he has to be without the puck, positionally and structurally.
“There’s a willingness there,” said Hynes.
One Western Conference scout saw strides in Hall’s game this season during a recent viewing.
“He was more than just a ‘Me’ player,” said the scout. “He was using his teammates more than I’d seen him. It wasn’t all individual stuff. I thought he was good. It was as good as I’d seen him play.”
Hall has missed 10 games this season with injuries and the scout raised the concern that Hall's style of play lends itself to injuries. He has played a full 82 games just once since breaking into the league in 2010-11.
When that concern was relayed to Shero, the GM expressed admiration for the way Hall takes the puck to the net and his willingness to put himself at risk to provide offense.
“That’s just the way hockey is, a lot of things happen. It’s fast, he plays hard and he plays fast,” Shero said. “I’d rather have that problem than someone who doesn’t go to the net.”
One byproduct of the trade is that it has thinned out the Devils defense and they clearly miss Larsson, who played some tough minutes. That’s the challenge with these trades sometimes; fixing one hole often creates another.
Original grade: Edmonton: C
Updated grade: Edmonton: C
If we’re just grading this deal on a player-for-player basis, there’s no doubt the Devils got the better player. But that’s not the job of a general manager. His job isn’t to go out and win trades. It’s to build a winning team and GM Peter Chiarelli is doing that in Edmonton. This trade was part of that process.
This deal was part of a bigger shakeup that helped change a culture in Edmonton, that cleared up cap space for Milan Lucic and sent a message that the disappointing years in the past were unacceptable.
And in today’s NHL, trades aren’t just evaluated on a player-for-player basis. There are other factors -- character, cap space, position -- to name a few.
Chicago GM Stan Bowman is a good example of a great GM who sometimes is on the short end of a trade to move forward with the big picture. It’s working just fine for the Blackhawks.
“Sometimes you’re not going to get the better player of the two but you come out of it the better team,” said the veteran Western scout. “You worry about the newspaper or the fans getting on you but at the end of the day, if you win the Stanley Cup, that’s better than someone saying you got the better deal.”
Larsson hasn’t been great in Edmonton but there’s an adjustment for a defenseman. There was a comfort level playing with Andy Greene in New Jersey and he and Oscar Klefbom appear to be searching for that comfort level.
“He’s a defensive defenseman, a second-pairing guy,” said the scout.
Let’s say that’s all he is, a 24-year-old, second-pair guy. That he’s signed at $4.167 million through 2023 becomes a factor since that’s a very reasonable contract that the Oilers will need on the books when it comes time to sign Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. And he’s still young enough that he has room for growth.
“Back in the day… you used to say, whoever got the best player in the trade wins,” Shero said. “That’s not it anymore. It’s also about the salary cap now.”
The trade: Montreal sends defenseman P.K. Subban to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Shea Weber
Original grade: Montreal: B
Updated grade: Montreal: B+
The original conclusion in assessing this trade immediately was that the Canadiens will win in the short term and the Predators will win in the long term. It’s playing out exactly that way.
Weber started the season on fire and has been a great fit with the Canadiens. Montreal is in first place in the Atlantic and GM Marc Bergevin has built a team capable of winning a Stanley Cup. Weber is a big part of that.
Hynes noticed a different vibe coming from the Canadiens when competing against them this season.
“There’s a real team there. They play for each other,” he said. “They play hard, you can see everyone is working on the same page. There are different talent levels but the same work ethic.”
He saw a comparison between the Penguins and Canadiens where the best players on the ice were also the ones leading the way, an important distinction for any contending team.
“Weber, Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, [Alexander] Radulov are leading the charge,” he said. “Their big guns are the workhorses.”
Now, it’s entirely possible that the Canadiens are in first place simply because of the return of Carey Price, but the results have been very positive so far. Montreal doesn’t get a top grade because of the long-term ramifications of this deal. This shortened the window to win, with Weber entering a slow regression in his play at this point in his career.
Original grade: Nashville: A
Updated grade: Nashville: A-
The Predators are my pick to come out of the Western Conference and considering they currently are outside a playoff spot, I’d definitely like a mulligan. In evaluating this deal, I definitely underestimated the impact that losing Weber meant to the culture of the team and the leadership.
There’s definitely been a leadership void in Nashville without Weber.
It also doesn’t help right now that Subban is hurt. He’s been out since Dec. 15 with an upper body injury although GM David Poile sounded optimistic that it wouldn’t be a long-term issue.
As for his on-ice play in Nashville, one Eastern Conference scout has seen a difference in Subban’s play since leaving Montreal.
“He’s way more controlled,” said the scout. “But still, P.K. is not that good defensively. Let’s make sure we all understand that.”
Subban has 17 points in 29 games so far this season for the Predators. He’s also a minus-11 so far this season, the lowest of his career.
Montreal has the early edge in this trade, but it isn’t one measured in months from Nashville’s perspective. This was a long-term play.