The wheels of change are coming for the Bruins after their disastrous elimination. The Boston Bruins have made the first massive move of their offseason to date as they traded away Taylor Hall to the Blackhawks to clear up $6M in cap space.
This really isn’t a big move in terms of the pieces coming and going, but the ramifications of such a move couldn’t be any bigger.
After one of the most humiliating playoff exits in Boston sports history, the Bruins have made their first consequential move of the offseason through trading Taylor Hall and the extension rights for Nick Foligno (who’s out of contract July 1st) to the Chicago Blackhawks for a pair of minor league defenseman and clearing the $6M Hall cap hit off their books entirely. And, I really think this was the only move the Bruins could have done with Hall.
The Bruins had to get rid of at least one of their Top-9 forwards, and Hall was the obviously odd man out.
Not only was Taylor Hall making a ridiculous $6M/year for another two years after the Bruins signed him to a 6-year, $24M extension a couple of seasons ago, but his points total completely fell off the face of the earth this past season as he only racked up 16 goals and 20 assists for a grand total of 36 points in 61 games played.
Now, I understand that he was injured for 21 games last year, but those 36 points were the second lowest single-season points tally Hall has produced in his 15-year career, and it was the lowest tally Hall has posted since…his move to Boston two years ago. So, in other words, Taylor Hall did nothing but decline from his Hart Trophy winning form during his time in a Bruins jersey, and his inevitable trade was a must for the Bruins to succeed next season.
So, trading Hall away for Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula, two minor league, young defenseman, really isn’t too much of big deal for me as even though Hall is worth a lot more than two minor leaguers, his contract would have prevented the Bruins doing anything impactful in the offseason.
You know, things like resigning Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, Garnett Hathaway, Jeremy Swayman, David Krejci (if he comes back), Tomas Nosek, Conor Clifton, Jakob Lauko, and Patrice Bergeron (if he comes back).
Personally, I don’t see many of those names actually returning to the Bruins roster for next season due to the Bruins cap space and the utterly humiliating First Round exit to the Florida Panthers after winning an NHL record 65 games last year.
Though, if I had to guess who the Bruins will put this free $6M into, I’d say Tyler Bertuzzi as the former Red Wings forward not only showed the heart and determination needed to win in the playoffs, but he also worked really well with David Pasternack.
Bertuzzi was one of the Bruins most dangerous and effective forwards when he came over from Detroit at the trade deadline as he scored 4 goals, added 12 assists, finished with 16 points in 21 regular season games, and scored another 5 goals and 5 assists in the playoffs for 10 points in 7 games. Simply put, the Bruins need to keep Bertuzzi around if they want to challenge for the Stanley Cup again.
Nevertheless, I’m sure there’s going to be other players on the roster, such as Linus Ullmark, Brandon Carlo, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Matt Grzelcyk, etc., who will all be subject to trades and trade rumors as the Bruins clearly need new faces and voices in their Top-6 forward cores if both Bergeron and Krejci retire.
As for the Blackhawks, this is a great move for Conor Bedard as Hall is a Top-6 winger that can help him develop into one of the league’s best players when the Blackhawks take him 1st overall in a couple of days.
Still, I’m just glad the Bruins have finally moved on from Taylor Hall as even though he had one good season scoring 61 points, the Hall experiment in Boston never came to fruition.
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