The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade for Taylor Hall

The Toronto Maple Leafs should trade for Taylor Hall.

But Jim, aren’t the Toronto Maple Leafs all but capped out? 

Aren’t they already loaded with talent?

Isn’t their need more on the back-end?

Have you finally lost it?

I have not lost it, I am serious, and adding a Hart Trophy winner is never a bad idea.

Let me explain.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Taylor Hall

Most people have the mistaken idea that a team needs balance.  This is how Taylor Hall ended up in New Jersey in the first place.

The Oilers didn’t properly understand how to build a hockey team, and they made the classic mistake of taking from where they were strong and trading for where they were weak, searching for balance.

But balance is not a prerequisite for winning.  In fact, seeking out balance (by sacrificing what you’re good at; what makes you special) is a recipe for losing.

This is especially true in hockey where only offensive players get paid any significant money.  The Oilers traded a rarity – a 90 point player – in exchange for a player (Adam Larson) who is essentially always available at a cheap cost.

The difference between Hall and 99% of the NHL is significant.  Adam Larson is essentially interchangeable with dozens of players.

The team with the most talent – the most elite players – is going to be the favored team.

“Therefore, teams should prioritize acquiring the very best elite talent, even at the cost of having weaker depth than opponents.” (Alex Novet, 2017. Hockey-graphs.com).

Critics of the Leafs approach to team building (those who don’t think they should have spent their money on so few players) would do well to understand this, from the same article:

"hockey is about creating goals, not avoiding mistakes, and there is a compelling case to give top players the freedom to make plays and win games."

If you add a 3 win player to your team, it doesn’t matter if those three wins come from a forward or a defenseman.  If Taylor Hall is available, and the Leafs can afford him, they should aggressively target him.

Regardless of if we are talking about hockey or any other game, playing to your strengths is more important than seeking a balanced approach.

Taylor Hall is an elite player.  Adding him makes the team better.

He also has a dirt-cheap cap-hit of just $6 million, which the Toronto Maple Leafs could easily afford, because they can send out that much money without hurting their roster at all.

Now what would this trade cost?  For that, let’s look at last year’s trade of Erik Karlsson to the Sharks.  Ottawa received two NHL players of decent quality, two prospects, and a second round pick that became a first rounder upon Karlsson re-signing in San Jose.

The Leafs could send the Devils Kasperi Kapanen and Cody Ceci.  This is comparable to the Senators getting Chris Tierney and Dylan Demalo.  The Leafs would also gain cap space in this transaction.

In addition, the Leafs could send prospects Joseph Duzak and Jeremy Bracco, along with a second round pick that is conditional on Hall re-signing.  (He won’t).

This is trade is an even better package than the Senators received for the superior Erik Karlsson, so I think it’s realistic.

The Toronto Maple Leafs would then have the ability to maintain their 2 x first line approach while also adding a third superstar to one of the lines, which would allow them to mimic the Bruins very successful super-line approach.

With Hyman back and Mikheyev emerging, Kapanen is expendable.  The Leafs  would be playing to their strengths, all the while denying their opponents the ability to add the best rental player on the market.

This is a win-win-win situation, and the Leafs have the assets, draft picks and cap space to pull it off.

Taylor Hall would instantly make the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup favorites.