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Hall Dealt to Arizona

So it finally has happened. Taylor Hall, the subject of trade rumors for the last few weeks, has been sent to the Arizona Coyotes along with Blake Speers for a package that includes draft picks and prospects.

Hall and Speers were sent to the Coyotes in exchange for Arizona’s 2020 first-round selection (top three protected), their third-round pick in 2021 (conditional), defenseman Kevin Bahl and Nick Merkley and Nate Schnarr (both forwards) according to the Devils’ press release put out.

According to the press release, the conditions on the draft picks are: “If Arizona’s 2020 first-round selection is in the top three, New Jersey will receive Arizona’s first-round pick in 2021.” On the 2021 conditional pick, “the third-round pick in 2021 becomes a second-round selection if Arizona wins a Stanley Cup Playoff round OR Taylor Hall re-signs in Arizona. The third-round pick in 2021 becomes a first-round selection if Arizona wins a Stanley Cup Playoff round AND Taylor Hall re-signs in Arizona. If neither condition happens, New Jersey still receives the 2021 third-round pick.”

The centerpiece of this deal from the Devils’ perspective sees Bahl’s rights coming eastward. The 6-feet, seven-inch, 230-pound 19-year-old is a left-shooting defenseman (a hole the Devils needed to desperately fill) currently playing in the OHL for the Ottawa 67’s. He is one of the players at Canada’s World Junior Championship camp as well, so we could see even more of him in the coming weeks, as that tournament gets underway the day after Christmas in the Czech Republic.

The New Westminster, British Columbia native currently has five goals and 15 assists for 20 points this season for the 67’s. He also has 43 penalty minutes, which the press release notes puts him as the only d-man in the OHL with 20 points and over 40 penalty minutes this season.

The Devils currently have four draft picks playing with the 67’s: Bahl, Graeme Clark, Mitchell Hoelscher and Nikita Okhotyuk.

As for the other prospects acquired by New Jersey, Merkley is 22-years-old and 5-feet, 10-inches, 195-pounds. He shoots from the right side and is currently in the AHL for the Tucson Roadrunners, where he has three goals and 13 assists for 16 points over 26 games. He was an AHL All-Star in 2018 and was the first-round pick of the Coyotes (30th overall) in 2015.

Schnarr is 20-years-old and 6-feet, 3-inches, 180-pounds. He also currently plays in the American League for the Roadrunners and has one goal and eight assists for nine points in 22 games. He was the Coyotes’ third-round pick in 2017, 75th overall. He played last year with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario League, where he helped lead the team to the OHL championship and a berth in the Memorial Cup.

Both players are centers.

Good luck to Taylor Hall as he moves on in his career. There have been varying takes about his time here, but the fact is that the 2017-18 season where he essentially put the Devils on his back and got them to the playoffs en route to winning the Hart Trophy – the first Devil to do so – was simply amazing to watch. Hopefully Bahl pans out and fills the need the Devils have. Hall wanted more than anything to get a chance at a Stanley Cup and (believe it or not) he may have that shot in Arizona, who have been on top of the Pacific Division and, at the least, are headed to the playoffs.

Hall will wear number 91 for the Coyotes according to NHL Network’s NHL Now, which was one of the sources that broke the story.

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Devils Trade for Gusev

The Devils today announced that they have acquired Nikita Gusev from the Vegas Golden Knights. The left wing was picked up in exchange for the Devils’ third round Draft pick in 2020 and their second-round pick in 2021.

Following the deal with the restricted free agent, the Devils have announced that they have come to terms on a contract with him, worth an average annual value of $4,500,000. The two-year contract, according to the Devils’ website’s Chris Wescott, breaks down to $5,000,000 in 2019-20 and $4,000,000 in 2020-21.

Gusev spent last year with SKA St. Petersburg (KHL) according to Wescott. He was drafted by Tampa Bay in 2012, their eighth pick (202nd overall). Vegas then acquired him in a deal at the Expansion Draft, sending a second-round pick in 2017 and a fourth rounder in 2018 to Tampa in exchange.

According to Wescott, he came to North America during the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, but did not play a game for the Knights.

He has played all of his pro career up to this point in Russia in the KHL. Wescott said that he played with Amur Khabarovsk in 2012-13, Yugra Khanty-Manslysk from 2013 to 2016 and SKA St. Petersburg from 2016 to 2019. Wescott listed the 27-year-old’s KHL stats as: 119 goals and 213 assists (332 points) and 64 penalty minutes all in 391 games. In the KHL playoffs, he has 28 goals and 40 assists (68 points) over 67 games. He won the 2017 Gargarin Cup (the KHL championship) with SKA St. Petersburg in 2017.

This past season, Wescott reports that Gusev “led the KHL in assists and points and was selected to his fourth KHL All-Star Game.”

Wescott mentioned in the press release that Gusev has competed internationally for Russia in the 2012 World Junior Championship, the 2017 World Championship and the 2018 Olympics. He won a bronze medal in 2017 (also leading the tournament in goals that year) and gold at the 2018 Olympics. At that tournament in Pyeongchang, South Korea, he had four goals and eight assists (12 points) over six games. Wescott says that “(h)is assist and point totals led all skaters” in the 2018 Olympics. Gusev “was named the Best Forward of” the Olympic tournament.

In other news reported by the Devils and Wescott, the right-shooting Gusev, who just celebrated a birthday (born on July 8, 1992), will wear number 97 for the team this coming season.

Gusev makes a great addition to the Devils offensively. As GM Ray Shero told Wescott in a separate post on the Devils’ website: “Nikita is a winger who adds another offensive dimension to our hockey club with his outstanding instincts, vision and skill level.”

Wescott, in a third post entitled “Three Things: Get to Know Gusev”, mentioned that Gusev was second in the KHL in scoring in 2017-18, while also winning their equivalent of the Hart Trophy as regular season MVP, and the KHL Gentleman Award (similar to the Lady Byng Trophy here in the NHL). Gusev also scored 82 points total in 2018-19, which stands as “the second-highest point total in KHL history.”

In his third point in his article, Wescott brings up something very interesting. Why did the Golden Knights part with a player who has such a high upside? The answer lies in the salary cap. As Wescott said, he “was a cap casualty.”

The article says that Gusev “had signed a one-year, entry-level deal with Vegas on April 14 but he did not appear in the playoffs. The contract expired after the season, making Gusev a restricted free agent [without arbitration rights].”

Basically, Gusev was asking more than Vegas (a team up against the cap) could afford. Since the Devils had cap space in abundance, they were able to swoop in and acquire Gusev.