Former Blackhawks’ Taylor Hall Quiet, But Not Invisible in Hurricanes Debut

Taylor Hall has now played for seven different teams in the NHL. That is rare for a former first overall pick that has had a solid career and even won Hart Trophy. While he was moved around less in the first half of his career, the last number of years have seen him bounce around.

Hall’s latest move came from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Carolina Hurricanes in the last year of his contract. The following day after being dealt for the fifth time in his career, he debuted for the Hurricanes.

Carolina didn’t get the win and Hall didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he wasn’t invisible either. He lined up on the fourth line with Jack Roslovic and Juha Jaaska and recorded three shots and one hit in 11:36 of ice time.

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Hall’s line was better than average in the game against the New York Islanders, but unfortunately it resulted in a loss. That doesn’t change the fact that the veteran is going to get into the playoffs barring a total collapse from the Hurricanes and he will have a shot at winning a Stanley Cup. Hall has only appeared in the playoffs five times and made it out of the first round once (one other time his team won the play-in round). He has 39 playoff games to his 879 regular season games.

Carolina has once again loaded up and looks primed for a deep run if they can get over the hump.

While Hall debuted on the fourth line and second power-play unit for Carolina, it is a much better situation playing on the bottom line for a 30-16-4 team than on the bottom line of a 15-28-5 team.

There is no doubt that as the team adjusts to not only having Hall added to the forward group, but Mikko Rantanen and the departures of Martin Necas and Jack Drury, there is going to be some shuffling of lines for the remaining 32 games of the regular season.

Can Hall finally reach the top after an eventful career moving around so much? That, we will have to wait and see. The East does look weaker than the West this season, so the path to the Stanley Cup may be a little easier, but playoffs are a whole different animal and no team can be counted out.

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