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Detailed Analysis of Taylor Hall's Time on the Arizona Coyotes

March 14, 2020, 1:09 PM ET [25 Comments]
James Tanner
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Taylor Hall must be the unluckiest guy in the world (for a world class athlete with millions and millions of dollars in the bank).

Every team he is on gets the first overall pick.

It's happened so many times it's kind of crazy.

But just as crazy is the Coyotes being 14-17-4 sine acquiring Hall, good for 27th in the NHL, while the Devils are 18-12-7, good for 12th overall.

You can't make this up. The only crazier thing will be when the Coyotes win the draft lottery and draft Alex Lafrenier, a player who will instantly surpass Taylor Hall as the best player in franchise history.

He may not have had the desired effect (a bad roster, a terrible game plan, and an injured goalie will do that to you) but there is no doubt that the Arizona Coyotes have never had another Hart Trophy winning superstar on their roster before.

The most disappointing thing to me about the entire Taylor Hall situation is that the Coyotes had this fantastic player and they were not creative at all about how they deployed him.

They stuck him with Christian Dvorak on day one, and never deviated from this. Their failure to try Hall with a multitude of players in order to find some chemistry is as frustrating as it is stupid.

Hall played almost 500 5v5 minutes in Arizona, 76 of them with Kessel, 62 with Keller, 52 with Schmaltz and just under 3 minutes with Barrett Hayton.

I'm no NHL coach, but if I had a Hart Trophy winner on my roster, I think I'd try to play him with the four most talented guys I had.

Just a thought.

Hall was a brutal 48% and was negative relative to his team. This is surprising for one of the league's best known play drivers, until your realize that the rest of the team literally never scored, so the opposition didn't have to game plan at all for the Coyotes.

"Cover Hall" was pretty much all you had to say to your team before the game.

The fact that Hall had a positive expected goal rating relative to his team, despite this, should illustrate how good he was, no matter how disappointing his time here may end up being.

In 36 games Taylor Hall had 10 goals and 27 points.

His 2.13 5v5 points per 60 was just slightly behind Nick Schmaltz, a player who should have been paired more with Hall.

Ultimately, the Coyotes broke even in goals with Hall on the ice, but had a very positive expected goals number. He dominated in getting 55% of the high-danger chances whenever he was on the ice, but unfortunately, was limited in pickup up assists because he was always played with duds.

Dvorak really wasn't horrible or anything, he's just not the ideal centre for Hall, and considering the Coyotes have Nick Schamaltz, it's just really unbelievable that they stuck with Dvorak no matter what.

I think there's a better chance that the Coyotes re-sign Hall than most people, because the fact is they love him and he loves them. Arizona is such a team-friendly franchise.

There are two options for Hall this summer: Edmonton (he never wanted to leave) and Arizona.

I'd put my money on the Oilers, but I wouldn't rule out the Coyotes.

Their record with Hall was terrible, but that is on the coach, the GM, the goalies, the other players and random luck.

Hall played great. He is great. The fact his teams always miss the playoffs is just random luck.

All stats from naturalstattrick.com
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