Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic speculates that a number of teams are in the running when speaking about who might want to acquire Taylor Hall from the New Jersey Devils. But, is there a team leading the charge?
LeBrun was the first to break the news that the Devils were now fielding calls and offers for Hall’s services. Aware of how badly their season is going, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to keep Hall in New Jersey where he likely won’t re-sign when the return in a trade could be equal to or better than what Mark Stone was worth when the Ottawa Senators traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights.
LeBrun writes, “It’s still early in the process, and I think you’ll hear about a lot of different teams.” He added, “Some will call out of curiosity, others will get more serious and some will drop out and return late, which is a lot of what was heard during the Stone derby a year ago.”
Among the teams he mentions, LeBrun focused on the Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks are at the top of the list. There was however, one clear leader.
Avs Leading the Charge
The Colorado Avalanche were the heavy favorites over the weekend and according to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, he reported rumblings the New Jersey have been scouting the Avalanche this season.
A top-six that features Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Andre Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri, Joonas Donskoi and Hall would be hard to defend and immediately make the Avalanche contenders.
The question in Colorado would be what to give up in return knowing that the future for Hall in Colorado is probably a short-term stay. The Avs being unwilling to give up the farm for Hall may be the one thing that keeps them from being a shoe-in as the Devils’ trade partner.
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