Boston Bruins trade Taylor Hall to Chicago Blackhawks
Two days ahead of the NHL Draft and less than a week before free agency, the Boston Bruins have just cleared a significant amount of cap space. As first reported by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the Bruins have traded left winger Taylor Hall to the Chicago Blackhawks. The full trade, as later confirmed by Seravalli: Hall and the rights to UFA forward Nick Foligno for the rights to RFA defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula. No salary was retained, meaning all $6 million of Hall’s cap hit goes to Chicago.
Full trade, per sources:
To #NHLBruins: Rights to RFAs Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula.
To #Blackhawks: Taylor Hall, rights to UFA Nick Foligno.
No salary retained by Boston, this represents a pure salary dump to clear $6 million off Bruins’ books.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 26, 2023
Hall, 31, had been a member of the Boston Bruins since they acquired him in April 2021 leading up to the trade deadline. He was a pending UFA rental at the time but signed a four-year, $24 million contract to stay with the Bruins. He had eight goals and 14 points in 16 games after coming over in 2020-21 and delivered a strong first full season as a Bruin in 2021-22 with 20 goals and 61 points in 81 games, but he regressed this season, tallying just 16 goals and 36 points, limited to 61 games because of a lower-body injury. With Pavel Zacha forging such strong chemistry on Boston’s second line with David Krejci and David Pastrnak, Hall was mostly relegated to third-line duty on the left wing.
In moving his $6 million cap hit, the Bruins give themselves some crucial breathing room. They were squeezed against the cap because the performance bonus overages for Krejci and Patrice Bergeron dinged them for $4.5 million worth of 2023-24 cap space. It remains to be seen whether Boston, which now has close to $11 million in cap space, will attempt to re-sign left winger Tyler Bertuzzi or defenseman Dmitry Orlov. Both came over as 2023 Trade Deadline rentals and were highly effective.
The Blackhawks, meanwhile, get two more seasons worth of Hall, who can now be expected to get a look in a first-line role alongside generational prospect Connor Bedard, who will be the No. 1 pick in Wednesday’s NHL Draft. Hall makes sense a mentor given he was the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. Hall had a 16-team no trade list but the Blackhawks were not on it, reports Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets.