For about three years now the Edmonton Oilers have been rumored to be trading one of their young forwards in an effort to break up their core and maybe add some much-needed defense to their roster.
On Wednesday afternoon they finally did it when they sent Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Adam Larsson in a straight up one-for-one swap.
On the surface it is one of the most stunning and unbelievable trades in recent memory because it just seems to be so lopsided in favor of the Devils. It also continues what has been a disturbing trend in the career of Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli when it comes to trading young, impact forwards still in the prime of their careers.
Let's take a look at all of this.
1. For the Devils, this is a huge move. Hall is one of the best left-wingers in hockey, is entering his age 25 season (which is typically the age scorers hit their peak in the NHL) and he gives the team something it has desperately lacked since losing Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk a few years ago -- a legitimate top-line forward. Hall is also still under contract for another four years at a very reasonable cap hit of $6 million per year.
2. It is no secret that the Oilers needed help on their blue line because their current group is ... bad. Very bad. So you can at least understand why they might want to dip into their group of high-end forwards to help fix that. But Hall is the best of the bunch, and for as dire as the need for defensive help is players like Hall are significantly more difficult to find than defenseman like Adam Larsson.
It's not that Larsson is a bad player. He is a fine NHL defenseman. But as the only piece in a trade for one of the best wingers in the NHL it is just an absolutely astonishing trade from an Edmonton perspective.
Larsson is less than two years younger than Hall, only saves the team $2 million in salary cap space, and he hasn't accomplished anything close to what Hall has. Larsson's value at this point is based entirely on reputation and pedigree (as a top-five pick just one year after Hall went No. 1 overall to the Oilers) and potential.
3. But the most unbelievable thing about this trade is that it is yet another high-level, top-line forward in the prime of his career that Chiarelli has traded as Hall now joins a list that also includes Phil Kessel and Tyler Seguin.
Since Chiarelli became the general manager of the Boston Bruins back in 2006, there have been 55 players in the NHL that have appeared in at least 200 games averaged more than .77 points per game during that stretch.
Out of that group, the only four players that were traded at age 26 or younger during that stretch have been Ilya Kovalchuk, Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, and Phil Kessel.
Three of those players (Hall, Seguin and Kessel) were traded by Chiarelli. The fourth player, Kovalchuk, was traded at the deadline in a contract year by Atlanta when it was clear they could not re-sign him.
In other words: Players like Taylor Hall (age, production, skill, etc.) simply do not get traded in the NHL right now ... unless Peter Chiarelli is the general manager of their team.
Hall and Seguin were the top-two picks in the 2010 NHL draft with Hall going to Edmonton and Seguin to Boston. Chiarelli has now traded both of them.
The Kessel trade at least had the potential to work out because it helped the Bruins land Seguin and Dougie Hamilton. But Chiarelli turned it into a loss by trading Seguin to Dallas for Loui Eriksson, Joe Morrow, Mark Fraser and Reilly Smith. With Eriksson set to leave the Bruins as a free agent, the only thing Boston has to show for that trade today is Morrow and Jimmy Hayes (acquired from the Florida Panthers in a trade for Smith a year ago).
Fraser was lost on waivers.
Last offseason Chiarelli's replacement in Boston, Don Sweeney, traded Hamilton to Calgary for three draft picks.
Amazing.