St. Louis Blues: Need offense, could they be in on Taylor Hall
Anthony Scultore
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On last night’s Saturday Headlines, Elliotte Friedman noted that the Buffalo Sabres are fielding plenty of calls on Taylor Hall. The eyebrow raiser was when he mentioned the St. Louis Blues just a moment later.
NHL Rumors: Taylor Hall on the move; St. Louis a destination?
“There’s a lot of teams checking in [on Taylor Hall],” he said. “One of them I’m wondering, if it can work for salary cap reasons is St. Louis. The Blues all of a sudden are having trouble scoring.”
This is an interesting development. The Blues are not shy about making trades, especially when it comes to Cup winning moves. They brought in Mike Hoffman in free agency but are very cap strapped right now with basically no wiggle room per CapFriendly.
Taylor Hall is the type of player many teams are looking for as the piece that gets them over the top. In order for the Blues to do this, they will need help in the form of cap space. Could they leverage the Blackhawks or Red Wings in order to do it? That’s the big question.
First round pick is the starting point for Hall
Miserable season be damned, the Sabres want a haul for Hall. According to Pierre LeBrun the starting point must begin with a first round pick. Even though he suggests that might be tough, you know if there are several teams already asking just over two weeks out they will get it.
Hearing that the initial asking price for Taylor Hall involves a first-round pick… Probably going to be tough to get that in this buyer’s market but it’s the right place to start two weeks out if you’re Buffalo. @TheAthletic @TSNHockey— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 26, 2021
The 29 year-old is having an abysmal season by his standards. In 33 games he only has two goals and 17 points. To be fair, this has to be simply considered the Buffalo Effect. The Sabres are the worst team in the NHL and are missing Jack Eichel to boot. Their defensive structure is non-existent and goaltending has been bad or injured all year. Contenders are taking this all into account when looking at Hall and realize this one time Hart Trophy winner can still be a huge help in a playoff run.
Teams reportedly interested are the Islanders, Maple Leafs, and Panthers.
If the Blues are going to be in on Hall, they do have a first round pick to make the deal. What other pieces could they move for the cap help remains to be seen. Vince Dunn is a possible trade chip, so this could be a fairly big three-way deal.