Getting over the kids and the Hall breakup
Former Oiler puts blockbuster behind him, expects to take leadership role with Devils
All Taylor Hall wanted to do was have a productive, relaxing summer.
The 24-year-old left-winger had just finished his sixth season with the Edmonton Oilers and his first playing alongside Connor McDavid. Despite a 31-win season, there was optimism about the future and, for Hall, to finally get a taste of the NHL playoffs.
Then June 29 rolled in like a hockey transaction hurricane. P.K. Subban was dealt from Montreal to Nashville for Shea Weber in a swap of all-star blueliners. Hall, shockingly, was dealt to the New Jersey Devils for defenceman Adam Larsson. So much for that relaxing summer. “Well, the trade put a wrench in things, that’s for sure,” Hall said on Tuesday at the Biosteel camp, getting a laugh out of the crowd of reporters around him.
“(I was) trying to sell my house in Edmonton, move and stuff. It was unexpected in that way. But after the first week, 10 days, you get used to it. You face your friends, you face your family for the first time and talk about it. After that it’s just business as usual.”
It sounds like more than that at times. On the day of the trade, Hall said he felt slighted by the deal. Through 381 games (while racking up 328 points), he tried to pull the Oilers out of a gutter that seemed to grow deeper by the season.
Listening to him on Tuesday, he sounded like he was emerging from a breakup.
“I guess,” he said. “In a breakup you try to forget about it as quick as you can and that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s not easy.
“Once the regular season starts and you start seeing Edmonton piling up the wins or whatever they might do, it’s going to be a little bit weird, but I think the main thing is to keep focusing on what’s happening with my team. I can control what I can control, and that’s my play on the ice.”
This week’s camp wasn’t the first time he had seen McDavid or Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse, Hall said.
“They’re great kids, good friends and that’s the crappy thing about getting traded . . . you’re on a new team and you’re going to develop new friendships, for sure, but there are a lot of really good guys back in Edmonton.”
But as Hall is learning this summer, you can only move forward after the split.
With the Devils, he’ll be reunited with his old junior hockey teammate, Adam Henrique. He has gotten texts and calls from his new teammates and coaches, and after six incredibly tough seasons in Edmonton, he gets a fresh start, some anonymity in a more diverse sports market, and he still has the peak years of his career in front of him.
“I’m 24 years old, I’m not an 18year-old kid that’s been drafted to a team,” he said.
“A lot of the onus is on me to get in there and get used to things as quickly as possible. I’ve played six years now, so hopefully I can take on a bit of a leadership role there and do my part.”
With the trade and now the move behind him, Hall is enjoying what’s left of the summer — he saw The Tragically Hip’s show on the weekend in his hometown of Kingston — and is getting ready for what’s next.
“I went (to New Jersey) last weekend and got an apartment,” he said. “Saw the city, saw the rink. I went to New York City, which is a lot closer than I actually thought it was. That’s going to be a pretty cool part about playing there.”