Darren Dreger of TSN reports the Arizona Coyotes will make another pitch to Taylor Hall today to try and re-sign him.
After sitting down with Hall during the play-in rounds to see what the forward was thinking in terms of his future with the franchise, apparently not much came out of that meeting. It was said to be friendly and didn’t include then-GM John Chayka, but speculation was Hall was just as likely to still leave as he might be to stay.
The Coyotes traded for Hall a few weeks prior to the NHL Trade Deadline in the hopes he’d help push the team towards the playoffs. No one know then that the NHL would essentially shut down, only to re-open and the Coyotes squeeze in as a play-in qualifier. The Coyotes advanced through the play-ins, but were handily defeated in Round 1 against the Colorado Avalanche.
The embarrassing final two games of that series had to get Hall pondering if this Coyotes team was the team to sign with long-term. How good are they? What else do they need? Is this team going to really be a winner? Those were all questions Hall has likely asked himself since the season ended.
Not to mention, news that the organization was being dinged draft picks as part of a penalty for illegally testing players at the NHL Combine and the prospect of restocking young talent on the team is not all that promising.
But, the Coyotes are going to try once more.
Coyotes Aren’t Giving Up
After their first playoff appearance in nearly a decade, the Coyotes are going to make a play to keep Hall in the fold, says Dreger. He writes, “Sources say the Arizona Coyotes are expected to make another pitch today to keep star forward Taylor Hall of the market.”
That pitch, should include more term and money than Hall will get in the open market, in the hopes that he has a tough decision to make. It’s just hard to imagine it will.
With a flat salary cap, there is great expectation that free agents will need to take pay cuts across the board. And, that news has leaked the Coyotes are going to “test the marketplace” on captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson, or perhaps move goaltender Darcy Kuemper… that can’t send a message to Hall that he’s going to get top dollar or the team is looking to improve their chances to win.
It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot left the Coyotes can offer Hall. If the team isn’t going to be very good, they aren’t looking to spend big money and they’re moving their best assets with no draft picks to build the pipeline, why would Hall have any reason to stay?
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