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Some of the Taylor Hall trade panic died the moment the Devils won a game but that possibility still exists; Taylor Hall is a free agent at the end of this season and if he is not satisfied with the Devils he may look to take his tool-set elsewhere.

Enter Edmonton.

This blog isn't too hash out what a trade would look like between the two teams or list reasons why Hall would or would not accept a trade to Edmonton. Instead we are going to focus purely on the financial side as many have asked the question, can the Oilers even afford him?

First off let's make some assumptions.

If Hall is returning to Edmonton, it's because he believes the Oilers have a real opportunity to be a Cup Contender.

We are also going to assume that Hall's production doesn't take massive leaps forward or backwards. His peak season was two seasons ago when he won the Hart with a 93 point season but his production year to year has fluctuated greatly, often due to injuries. Based on his early production and assuming he plays a full season, we will say Hall will produce in the 65-75 point range this season, something like 27-43-70.

With all that being said, it isn’t unreasonable to see Hall signing a deal with Edmonton between 9 and 10 million a season. Hall should not receive as much as Tavares, who is a centre in addition to his point production, or even Panarin who has had a healthier history and produced more consistent 25+ goal seasons. We will go right in the middle and say Edmonton signs Hall to a seven year deal worth 9.5 million a season.

Now what?

The CBA has been agreed upon to be extended over the next two seasons but that doesn't mean a flat cap over that time. Likely we will still see a slight rise of 1 or 2 million each year. Hall at 9.5 million would give Edmonton roughly $16,500,000 to address the rest of the roster.

A few more assumptions

- Edmonton finds a suitor for Russell for the last year of his 4 million dollar contract. Some might scoff at this, but a team with some cap space who is feeling a need for a veteran PK specialist would see value in Kris. I'm looking at you Winnipeg Jets.
- Darnell Nurse signs a contract in the range of eight years at 7 million with Edmonton.
- Ethan Bear signs a bridge deal in the 2 million dollar range.
- Edmonton signs a veteran backup goalie to a one year contract to split games with Koskinen. This goalie is signed in the 2 million dollar range.

Having said all of that, this could be the lineup iced by Edmonton for the beginning of the 2020/2021 season.

Benson(0.8M)-McDavid(12.5M)-Draisaitl(8.5M)
Hall(9.5M)-Nugent-Hopkins(6M)-Neal(5.75M)
Khaira(1.2M)-McLeod(0.83M)-Yamamoto(0.89M)
Nygard(0.9M)-Haas(0.9M)-Chiasson(2.15M)
Marody(0.925M)

Nurse(7M)-Bear(2.2M)
Klefbom(4.167M)-Bouchard(0.89M)
Jones(.8M)-Larsson(4.16M)

Koskinen(4.5M)
Smith(2M)

This roster would leave Edmonton with by my estimate, roughly 3 million dollars in cap-space.

A quick glimpse even further, to the 2021/2022 season:

- Adam Larsson and his 4.16 million will be off the books
- Alex Chiasson's 2.15 million will be gone
- Benoit Pouliot's 1.3M Buyout will be finished
- Sekera's buyout cap hit drops from 2.5M to 1.5M
- Buying James Neal's contract out here will save the team 3.75 million a season

That opens up another 12.4 million to re-up RNH as well as divy out money for pending RFA's such as Benson, Yamamoto, Bouchard, and McLeod.

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This little experiment is conjecture but the overall fact remains; should Taylor Hall hit the open market, Edmonton does have the ability to sign him without catastrophically impacting the rest of the roster. It's my opinion that when a player like Taylor Hall becomes available and you have the structure in place to sign him...you do so.

Thanks for reading!

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