- Jim Matheson: Wouldn’t trade Taylor Hall, but this is the Oilers and they’ve traded Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Grant Fuhr and Kevin Lowe.
- Dennis Bernstein: A team that is in 30th overall shouldn’t have any untouchable. If there is a team that would overpay for Taylor Hall, you have to make that deal.
- Nick Cotsonika: The only way you trade Taylor Hall is if …
1. All the losing and dysfunction has made him sour beyond repair.
2. I get a major return.
- Jonathan Willis of the Edmonton Journal: Willis thinks it’s a bad idea for the Oilers to trade Hall. Yes, they do have lots of holes, but teams are likely to give them an elite defenseman for Hall. The Oilers almost certainly wouldn’t be able to get a Drew Doughty, Shea Weber or P.K. Subban for him.
Taylor Hall is 23 years old, a franchise player, and signed long-term. Unless he’s actively demanding to be moved, the Edmonton Oilers would be insane to trade him. The same isn’t necessarily true of a (with all due respect) lesser talent like Jordan Eberle, though of course even there the Oilers would need to be awfully careful, but trading Hall means trading for inferior talent at another position.
- Adam Proteau of The Hockey News: Proteau notes that there is nothing wrong with the Oilers breaking up some of their core, but trading the best of their core, Taylor Hall, is not a a good idea. Trading one, or maybe two of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov and Jordan Eberle in separate deals, should bring in enough depth and talent to fill some of their holes. They need to fix their blueline and goaltending.
- Adam Gretz of CBS Sports: Gretz doesn’t think the Oilers should trade Hall.
Players like this shouldn’t be traded to fill holes because all you’re doing is creating another hole on the roster (a franchise player), and one that is the most difficult to fill in the NHL.
Gretz also asks the question “Would you trust this front office to make a trade of that magnitude?”
- The Fourth Period: Trade talk is likely to pick up after the holidays for the Oilers, with moves likely to start in January. Holes the Oilers have: top-two center, a two-way bottom-six center, a defensive-minded forward, a physical stay-at-home defenseman, a top-pairing blueliner and a No. 1 goaltender.
- Thomas Drance of the Score: Three potential landing sports for Taylor Hall.1. Columbus Blue Jackets – the teams have already talked about David Perron and Artem Anisimov. The Oilers previously asked about Ryan Johansen. Would the Blue Jackets reconsider and trade Johansen? They Blues Jackets have some depth down the middle in Brandon Dubinsky, Boone Jenner and Artem Anisimov.2. New York Islanders – the Islanders could use a left winger to play with Kyle Okposo and John Tavares and have some young assets. The Islanders could package Ryan Strome, one of Travis Hamonic, Nick Leddy or Calvin de Haan, and one of Ryan Pulock, Griffin Reinhart or Adam Pelech.
3. Tampa Bay Lightning – the Lightning have lots of young forward including: Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Brett Connolly, Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov. On the blueline they could include Radko Gudas or Andrej Sustr, and a prospect in Anthony DeAngelo, Adam Erne or Slater Koekkoek.
