St. Louis Blues May Never Have Been In On Taylor Hall

If you believe rumors, the St. Louis Blues might have made a blockbuster offer for Taylor Hall. The trouble is rumors can start from anywhere.

For those unaware or busy with holiday readiness, the St. Louis Blues were ultimately not the team to acquire Taylor Hall’s services from the New Jersey Devils. I am not overly upset about it since I unveiled three key reasons the Blues should not be in on that sweepstakes.

However, the question now arises as to whether the Blues were ever actually involved. The Arizona Coyotes did not get off easy in their trade, but it feels like less than what the Blues were rumored to be offering.

According to ESPN, the Coyotes dealt a conditional 2020 first-round pick, a conditional third-round pick, Nate Schnarr and Nick Merkley (both AHL centers) and defenseman Kevin Bahl of the OHL. Arizona gets Hall and AHL center Blake Speers. Also according to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, the Devils are retaining 50% of Hall’s $6 million cap hit so the Coyotes will be cap compliant.

I’ll be honest, I do not know much about Schnarr or Merkley. Schnarr put up gaudy numbers in the OHL, but only has nine points in 22 games in the AHL this season. Merkley has been a pro longer, but has yet to eclipse 20 goals or 40 points in the AHL.

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Bahl is highly thought of. Some thought he might crack the Coyotes lineup this season, but he is still very early in his development and was sent back to juniors.

Yet, even as an outsider of the Coyotes and someone who might be too far within the Blues forest to see the trees, it seems slightly underwhelming. It makes one wonder if the Blues rumor was just made out of thin air.

As mentioned in the three reasons why not to trade for Hall article, the rumors circling the Blues involved Alex Pietrangelo – that was a non-starter since it made no sense – and there was a recent rumor that said it would be Jake Allen and Robert Thomas going to the Devils. No offense to any of the former Coyotes players, but they are not up to the level of a Thomas and Allen combination.

Thomas is in the NHL right now but still on an entry level deal for one more season past this one. His numbers were not eye-popping as a rookie, but nine goals and 33 points for someone who played on the third and fourth line is not that bad. He is already halfway to those totals now and we are not yet halfway through the season.

The Devils seem ready to leave the net to MacKenzie Blackwood. Even if I leave my own Jake Allen bias out of it, at the very least, Allen would be a far superior backup to Louis Domingue.

All of that makes me think either the Blues were never really in on this deal, at least not to the level of the rumors. The only other explanation is the Devils are hell bent on rebuilding.

The draft picks did seem to be one of the linchpins of this trade.

"If Arizona’s 2020 first-round selection is in the top three, New Jersey will receive Arizona’s first-round pick in 2021. The conditions on the 2021 pick are as follows: the third-round pick in 2021 becomes a second-round selection if either Arizona wins a Stanley Cup playoff round or Hall re-signs in Arizona. The third-round pick in 2021 becomes a first-round selection if Arizona wins a Stanley Cup playoff round and Hall re-signs in Arizona. If neither condition happens, New Jersey still receives the 2021 third-round pick. – Greg Wyshynski, ESPN"

Perhaps the Blues were neither willing nor capable of including that many picks.

Regardless, this worked out for the best. The Blues have plenty of talent in the NHL, but they have traded away a lot of draft picks in recent deals. It is time to start actually drafting players again instead of just trying to restock through trades.

Plenty of Blues fans will be discouraged that their team did not get Hall. There is no doubt that his addition would have been interesting, at the very least.

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I simply have a gut feeling that it was best to avoid all this and the Blues did. Whether they were actually in on this deal is now up in the air.

Clearly the rumored trade could never have been real. Either that or the Devils have other ideas about the quality the Blues would have been handing them.

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