The Boston Bruins are trading LW Taylor Hall to the Chicago Blackhawks, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. This comes the week of the 2023 NHL Draft, when the Blackhawks are expected to select C Connor Bedard with the first overall pick.
Hall, 31, has two years remaining on his contract worth an average annual value of $6 million. Per Darren Dreger, the Bruins are also including Nick Foligno in the deal. The Bruins are getting defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula in return, both players being RFAs. Foligno’s rights are being traded since he isn’t under contract past this calendar year. That means Chicago is interested in signing Foligno before free agency opens in July.
Hall had 36 points in 61 games for the Bruins this past season. He missed some time due to injury and played mostly in the middle-6 forward group. Boston of course is coming off a historic season, setting the record for most points with 135. Trading Hall clears some cap space for the Bruins to use this offseason.
With this move, the Bruins should have just under $11 million in cap space, per CapFriendly. Boston has plenty of tough decisions to make this offseason. Captain Patrice Bergeron is an unrestricted free agent, though he could end up retiring. Same goes for C David Krejci. He could retire or come back on a one-year deal. If both Bergeron and Krejci leave/retire, the Bruins main focus is re-signing UFA Tyler Bertuzzi, who was acquired from the Red Wings at the trade deadline.
The Bruins also need to sign RFAs Trent Frederic and Jeremy Swayman, as well as UFAs Garnet Hathaway, Dmitry Orlow and Thomas Nosek. Looking ahead, RW Jake DeBrusk is due for a contract extension once the calendar flips. With the cap expected to rise over the next few seasons, that could help the Bruins fit in some extensions/raises and maintain its core. This will be important since Boston lacks draft capital. The Bruins don’t have a first-round pick until 2025 and gave up all their second-round picks through that draft.
This deal for the Blackhawks is a little odd. Chicago is probably thinking Hall can teach Bedard a bit and play on the LW with Bedard for a season and a half before flipping Hall at the deadline during the 2024-25 season, when he’s on an expiring deal. The Blackhawks need NHL forwards to eat up minutes in the top-6 and Hall wasn’t getting that in Boston. Worst case is Hall is more of a third-liner who can play on the PP but will miss games due to injury here and there. The Hawks also need to hit the salary cap floor, which is around $60.2 million.