Devils Acquire Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson

[Josh]

Pretty terrible return for the Oilers in my opinion.

[Alfie11]

Agreed. Larsson is a good piece, but Hall is an elite piece

[matchesmalone]

Some assorted thoughts:

I love that Chiarelli has now traded the 1st and 2nd overall picks from the 2010 draft.

Hard to argue Hall isn't the superior talent here, but when you take into account his injury history, maybe not such a bad move by Chiarelli as everyone is making it out to be. Of course, there's always a risk Hall turns into the perennial 40 goal, 90 point threat he was drafted to be, but I think it's been well established that in order for him to be that player he needs to play a certain style, and that style tends to lead to frequent and serious injuries, so I'd say that risk is very low.

Very similar trade to the Johansen-Jones deal in a lot of ways.

Larsson is a really solid top three defenseman on just about any team in the league, and now Larsson, Klefbom, Nurse is a pretty formidable young core. This Oilers team might be finally coming together.

The next step is to trade either Eberle or Hopkins for another defenseman. But if Hall only gets you Larsson, not sure what you can get for one of them. Wonder if Philly would deal Gostisbehere for Nuge. Perhaps Fowler for Eberle. Minnesota definitely has some D to spare. Hamonic apparently rescinded his trade request, but if Okposo or Nielsen leave as free agents, they might be interested in a young center or right wing.