Taylor Hall for 2nd Rd Pick to the Bruins

RedOctober3829

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I'm not being overly negative my man, I'm being realistic. I'm of the opinion that they will not get healthy enough and don't have the depth to make a meaningful run, I don't see the point in selling off assets, no matter how many flaws you see with those assets.

The reality is that your top 3 defenseman is injured and our goalies are out. Asking for them to get healthy is one thing, but making a bunch of mediocre trades in the hopes that everyone magically gets healthy and things start falling our way is a bridge too far for me and it's not like I super value Bjork or the picks. I just think it's a waste when there is just way too much to overcome.
What about getting a lot of these players back healthy is magical? McAvoy is expected to return this week and Grz is day-to-day. Tuukka Rask is expected back soon. They will have most of their team back soon while adding three players who could help. The thing with the playoffs is that this year it doesn't matter what seed you are because all 4 teams that make it out of the East Division are all really good and it would be tough to make it out of the first round even if they finished first. We all know that home ice advantage in the NHL doesn't mean much either. All I care about is that they make the playoffs and are playing their best hockey going into it. If they aren't, then it's not going to be a long run anyways even if they continued their hot start to the year.
 

cshea

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Also, going back to the 2010 draft, Hall has said he was hoping Boston would win the lottery and take him. He thought they were a better situation for him than Edmonton. So the interest in coming here dates back quite a bit.
 

veritas

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It's hard to know exactly why but there is a lot to be optimistic about with his performance in Buffalo, despite the numbers being quite bad. The concern comes with his admission yesterday that his confidence is shot. Hopefully that doesn't change who he is as a player. He's always been a below average finisher for his larger skill set but this 2.3% shooting percentage is insanely unlucky. If you look at whats happened this year in Buffalo, his three most common lines are below:

Eichel - Reinhart GF% 44.4%
Staal - Cozens GF% 42.9%
Stall - Reinhart GF% 33.3%

So not great. But if you look at the other stuff that is happening with those groups, it seems quite obvious that there is a lot of bad fortune there.

Eichel - Reinhart Corst% 63%
Staal - Cozens Cosri% 51.5%
Stall - Reinhart Corsi% 55.7%

Left wing lock has Hall as the unluckiest forward in the NHL this year. If you normalize his shooting percentage to his former career LOW he would have 9 goals. There is still a good player in there and I think the matchup advantage he will enjoy here is going to help. Maybe thats too optimistic but he's just too good to be this bad.
Agree with all of this. He's not a great finisher who is also unlucky right now and may have a little bit of the yips. I think it's valid to be concerned about his shot. But his numbers still show him as elite at generating offense for other people, that's what they're buying.

The Sabres' 5v5 xG/60 with Hall on the ice is 2.58, without is 2.01. That is a pretty huge difference, similar to the effect McAvoy and Bergeron have on the Bruins. And Hall wasn't playing with Eichel for most of the season, he was playing with bums, to be honest. And they're better defensively when he's on the ice too, although he does get a bump from zone start usage.

As for his personality, I think it's safe to say he's not the natural leader that you would prefer to be captain of your team. But that can be said for a lot of great players who have won a lot of Stanley Cups. Edmonton was a horrible situation for him, a dysfunctional organization, he was 18 years old, expected to be the captain and savior of the franchise. I'm not worried about that at all.

Another thing I think is being overlooked is his value on the PP. The Bruins have been looking for the 5th guy on their PP for years, and he's way better than anyone they've had. If he can find chemistry with them, he could turn a very good power play into a great one. I think his passing ability can help replace what they lost from Krug, which has been missing a little bit this season. And will certainly help with zone entries, which I feel can be an issue for the PP from time to time.
 
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cshea

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Cassidy says Hall is starting with Krejci and Smith. Sweeney made it seem like DeBrusk would be kicked over to the right to start, but deferred to Butch on that.

I would think Hall also replaces Ritchie on PP1. Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak - Hall - Grz (when healthy).

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
Hall - Krejci - Smith
Ritchie - Coyle - DeBrusk
 

FL4WL3SS

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What about getting a lot of these players back healthy is magical? McAvoy is expected to return this week and Grz is day-to-day. Tuukka Rask is expected back soon. They will have most of their team back soon while adding three players who could help. The thing with the playoffs is that this year it doesn't matter what seed you are because all 4 teams that make it out of the East Division are all really good and it would be tough to make it out of the first round even if they finished first. We all know that home ice advantage in the NHL doesn't mean much either. All I care about is that they make the playoffs and are playing their best hockey going into it. If they aren't, then it's not going to be a long run anyways even if they continued their hot start to the year.
Not everyone is going to come back at 100%, injuries are still a concern.

I've said my part on this. I don't think it was the right move to sell off assets for this team and agree with TFP that they should be restocking for the McAvoy/Pasta/Marchy years. It is what it is at this point and I'm rooting for all of the pieces to fall just right like the rest of you.
 

burstnbloom

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Cassidy says Hall is starting with Krejci and Smith. Sweeney made it seem like DeBrusk would be kicked over to the right to start, but deferred to Butch on that.

I would think Hall also replaces Ritchie on PP1. Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak - Hall - Grz (when healthy).

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
Hall - Krejci - Smith
Ritchie - Coyle - DeBrusk
PP1 - Reilly, Marchand, Bergeron, Pastrnak, Ritchie
PP2- McAvoy, Hall, Krejci, Smith, Debrusk

Coyle off the PP.

I like it. Hall has played the left half wall and the bumper on the PP mostly. That's cool but also that's Pasta and Bergeron's slots, so not really any room for him on PP1. He will bring some real juice to PP2 on the half wall.
 

burstnbloom

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Not everyone is going to come back at 100%, injuries are still a concern.

I've said my part on this. I don't think it was the right move to sell off assets for this team and agree with TFP that they should be restocking for the McAvoy/Pasta/Marchy years. It is what it is at this point and I'm rooting for all of the pieces to fall just right like the rest of you.
I understand and respect this take quite a bit. I just don't think they gave up any real assets here. I like Bjork but he has only one more year than Lazar at twice the cost and the draft picks are in an unscoutable draft. If you think 2nd and 3rds are hard to hit, try doing it when players have played only 20 games in their draft year and you watched it on the rink cam.

I think this years draft is going to be a HUGE crap shoot.
 

TFP

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and the draft picks are in an unscoutable draft. If you think 2nd and 3rds are hard to hit, try doing it when players have played only 20 games in their draft year and you watched it on the rink cam.

I think this years draft is going to be a HUGE crap shoot.
This is a fair point I hadn't considered.

I'm not considering Bjork a major asset at this point. The draft picks are my issue, due to their depleted farm system and the amount of picks they've traded away over the years. 2nd and 3rd round picks are far from guarantees as has been mentioned, but they certainly can produce many NHL level players, even superstars and HOFers. All the more reason to be hoarding them and trying to hit on as many as possible. Trading away one in a vacuum isn't a waste, trading many of them away over a decade ends up adding up in the aggregate, and this contributes to that. Death by a thousand paper cuts, so to speak. Maybe they missed out on a 1 in 3 chance of drafting an NHL regular, but maybe if they had 3 picks stocked up they're in way better shape.
 

burstnbloom

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This is a fair point I hadn't considered.

I'm not considering Bjork a major asset at this point. The draft picks are my issue, due to their depleted farm system and the amount of picks they've traded away over the years. 2nd and 3rd round picks are far from guarantees as has been mentioned, but they certainly can produce many NHL level players, even superstars and HOFers. All the more reason to be hoarding them and trying to hit on as many as possible. Trading away one in a vacuum isn't a waste, trading many of them away over a decade ends up adding up in the aggregate, and this contributes to that. Death by a thousand paper cuts, so to speak. Maybe they missed out on a 1 in 3 chance of drafting an NHL regular, but maybe if they had 3 picks stocked up they're in way better shape.
Ya and I agree with the concept on a macro level. They've done a poor job accumulating ELC talent over Sweeney's tenure both due to trading kicks at the can and incompetence. I just think on a more micro level, this draft is going to be a huge advantage for the truly elite scouting departments and the bruins aren't one of them. The chances of them hitting on anything the gave up yesterday are markedly lower than they normally would be and they would normally be bad. I'm also a bit more optimistic on this team in general. I think they are the best team in the East when healthy by a comfortable margin. The Isles are the only team that really scares me assuming health, of course. Tampa, Colorado and Vegas are the only teams I would feel present a major disadvantage and Hall does a lot to mitigate that gap. All that said, health will be the key. It's hard to throw away a season when you have an insane amount of nicks and cuts and just say "noone is going to get healthy." I think Don did the right thing yesterday.
 

FL4WL3SS

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Putting aside everything I've said over the past day, it's pretty neat that we got Taylor Hall for a song basically. I'm not sure 11 games is enough to tell us anything, but let the fun begin.
 

Jordu

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Perhaps playing for a contender and joining a team captained Bergeron will sharpen Hall’s game. Plus the guy is a UFA and playing for a contract. Add that motivation to what everyone one else here has said about his skill set and he could be a big factor the rest of the way.
 

cshea

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They primarily take a shit all over Buffalo, but if anyone is interested in more content around this trade, this is a good podcast listen:

View: https://twitter.com/StaffGraph/status/1382344114042191874?s=20


Rachel Doerrie spent time working for the Devils hockey ops group (analytics). She knows Taylor and has numerous connections around the league so she's got her finger on the pulse. Apparently at least someone from the Bruins reached out to her to get background on Hall, though it's unclear if it was before or after the deal. It is a full deadline recap pod, but they do the Hall one first.
 

Silverdude2167

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He creates well and gets into dangerous positions on the ice with ease it seems.

The goal tonight and the unofficial assist to Craig in the first game are great examples of it. I will be so excited if he keeps playing like this.
 

TheRealness

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He had a couple of shifts last night where he carried possession for that line, and really drove the play. He’s got 4 goals in 9 games, and has been playing 200 foot hockey. He’s going to give them a real chance to make a run here, and hopefully the team is healthy for the playoffs. He seems reborn since the trade.
 

cshea

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9, games 119:31 TOI at 5x5

142-88 in attempts
77-52 in shots
75-41 in scoring chances
29-18 in high danger chances
9-1 in actual goals
6.17-3.69 in expected goals (63%)

He's pretty much been MVP Hall since his arrival. He is riding a bit of a percentage bender (PDO is 110) to get the 9-1 on ice goal differential, but it's not crazy lopsided. Even regressing to his xGF% we're in serious business. When he's on the ice, it's like the other team is a bunch of Tinordi's.

My one gripe is not using him on the top PP. The PP is cold and Ritchie has sucked for a while now. I'm guessing the hesitation is because Ritchie plays net front and Hall has traditionally been a half boards guy. Hall has always been more of a playmaker than a pure shooter so some of the playmaking would go to waste in the net front role where the primary job is puck retrieval, setting screens, getting tips and trying to cleanup rebounds. The Bruins are probably the only team in the league that has 2 half-boards guys better than Hall (Marchand and Pastrnak when Pastrnak is unfucked).
 
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RedOctober3829

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Hall loves Boston -- the city, the team, the overall vibe. He's having fun and has made it clear since he arrived that he would like to be in Boston for a while.

"I do want to play here, not just for one or two more years, hopefully longer than that," Hall said. "I don't even know what my worth is right now, honestly. I'm not worried about my contract right now, it's something we'll figure out in the summer. I have much bigger things to worry about as a player, as a teammate. I knew it was a great city, but I've been surprised at how much better it's been than I even thought it was. So hopefully it all works out."

"Some guys can go home and just don't even think about hockey. But for me, I love hockey so much. I love to practice, I love to prepare, I love to play obviously. When you're not enjoying it as much as you can be, it becomes hard. When I came to Boston I was just going to just take things in stride. Enjoy every day.

"And it's worked out. We've won one round, we had a pretty good end of the regular season, but it showed me how fun hockey can be. And that's what I've learned here so far."
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/31517542/how-taylor-hall-prior-career-stops-led-2021-renaissance-boston-bruins
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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I think in a vacuum it’s fine and clearly not a whole lot to give up so it’s worth a flyer I guess.

From a big picture perspective it’s idiotic that they’re burning assets to improve this team when they‘re realistically not even getting out of the first round.
You are way more optimistic than I am.

They have a bottom 5 farm system in the NHL and just burned a 2nd and a 3rd on two rentals. Feels like Sweeney is trying to save his job and the expense of the future.

2019 was the last hurrah for the “core”. They should be focused on building around the Pasta/McAvoy/Marchand sweetheart deals because those tabs will be coming due soon and not having capitalized on them will be the true waste.
I'm pretty much in complete agreeance with TFP that Sweeney's trying to save his job and all this is going to do is push round one to 6 games instead of 5 and hurt the future. I hope I'm wrong. Feel like Bjork was playing well lately/this year and liked his deal.
Just because @Smiling Joe Hesketh doesnt post as much as he used to, it doesn't mean you guys can just take up his mantle. We only got room for 1 of these kinds of mods/dopes.
 

Gammon_Clark

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Apr 24, 2010
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The path to the Cup this year seems harder than any from the Bruins standpoint than I can personally remember, and certainly more difficult than 2011, 2013 and 2019. Would be curious to know if others mostly agree or disagree with that point…
That being said, it’s always tough to win, only one winner, right?! This is a lot of fun, and if/when we defeat the Islanders, we will have our hands full with Tampa and if/when/then Vegas or Colorado… eww eee, so I guess my larger point is that after we have a result (which is always least likely to be the last one standing) it will be easy to MMQB the moves, but right now… it’s a whole lotta fun, so Carpe Diem everyone!