Taylor Hall’s time in Boston has come to an end, and he’s now headed to Chicago. Here are the full details of the trade:
Along with Taylor Hall, the Blackhawks also obtained the rights to Nick Foligno. Both Hall and Foligno missed considerable time this past season, but while on the ice they had notable impact even in the stacked lineup Boston had. Hall, who won the Hart Memorial Trophy for MVP in 2018, was arguably the best payer on the team in their playoff series against Florida, netting five goals and three assists in seven games. Chicago is getting a talented veteran player to join the soon to be drafted Conor Bedard, making the rebuild period for the Blackhawks seem shorter than ever.
Boston on the other hand went all in this past season, trading for multiple players who were on one year deals while also having many of their core players not signed through the 2024 season. Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Tyler Bertuzzi, Tomas Nosek, Garnet Hathaway, Trent Frederic, Dmitry Orlov, Connor Clifton, and Jeremy Swayman are all free agents and nobody is sure who will resign after the disappointing end to last season.
The Blackhawks taking all of Taylor Hall’s salary gives the Bruins money to work with though, and along with bringing back the payers I had just listed, there are rumors circulating that Torey Krug might make his return next season after David Pasternak retweeted this video:
Krug also erased all signs of the St. Louis Blues from his socials after trade talks involving him going to the Flyers went public. It’s clear the the Blues want to deal Krug elsewhere and are willing to take a cap hit, but it would take Don Sweeney working some magic to get Krug back in the black and gold.
MY THOUGHTS AS A BRUINS FAN
I am sad to see Hall and Foligno go, but if it means clearing cap to bring back Orlov, Bertuzzi, Krejci, and especially Bergeron, I’m all for it. While Hall showed occasional flashes of his past MVP self, he never played consistent enough to breach the top three of forwards on the Bruins. Bergeron, Pasternak, and Marchand remained the centerpieces of the offense, and Hall was relegated to a second or third liner. After missing 21 games this past season and only putting up 36 points, I think it is the right time to move on.
As for Foligno, it kinda feels similar to the Celtics losing Marcus Smart. I know, Foligno was not nearly as impactful as Smart, but this past season he stepped up into a leadership role centered around grit and looking out for his teammates that will be hard to fill now that he’s gone. This is a prime example:
Overall, the Bruins have a lot of decisions to make this off season. Winning the Cup would’ve been the perfect sendoff for Bergeron and Krejci, so the question now is whether those players will come back or not. Pasternak, Lindholm, and McAvoy are signed to long term deals, so the future of the team still looks bright, but if they’ll try to win one more with the old core and what that would take is left to be seen.