Blackhawks GM Davidson explains reasoning for moving Hall in three-way blockbuster
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The Chicago Blackhawks played a facilitator role in a blockbuster three-team trade over the weekend that saw the Carolina Hurricanes pick up star winger Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche as well as veteran forward Taylor Hall and prospect Nils Juntorp from the Blackhawks.
Centres Martin Necas and Jack Drury, plus two draft picks went to Colorado while Chicago acquired a 2025 third-round pick in the deal, also agreeing to pay 50 per cent of Rantanen's cap hit for the remainder of the season.
On Monday, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson explained his reasoning to move Hall at this point and time.
"It was pretty minimal on our side, obviously a pretty big deal. I think there’s a little bit confusion on what our role was in it. For us we were happy to get the asset that we got back. In moving Taylor, I think it was something that was probably going to happen at some point. We were not going to use our two retained salary transactions on being involved in this one and then maybe another one with Taylor later on. And so, it was one or the other. We either going to be involved in this or we weren’t," said Davidson.
"And from my estimation, the market was probably around that if we stayed out of this all together and just took the player to market later on and got a pick for him later on. But in waiting you run the risk of things like injury, the role was diminishing almost by the game, and it just wasn’t heading towards a way that was going to maximize or enhance value, and so in moving then, we moved at full price and held on the other player involved. It just didn’t make sense to wait and not really get a better return later on. It was basically what we thought or hoped we would get and so just move forward with it instead of risking all the things that just go along with just holding a player and fingers crossed maybe the value increases marginally a little bit down the stretch."
The 33-year-old Hall had nine goals and 15 assists over 46 games with the Blackhawks in 2024-25, his second season with the organization after being acquired from the Boston Bruins in the summer of 2023.
Hall is in the final season of a four-year, $24 million contract, featuring an average annual value of $6 million.
Chicago sits last in the Western Conference with a 15-29-5 record through 49 games.
The NHL Trade Deadline is March 7.
"We’ll be listening to see what happens. Obviously when you’re in a position that that we’re in, you’re traditionally more of a seller, but we’ll just kind of see what comes our way," Davidson said of his team's plans for the deadline. "Nothing that we’re going to certainly force. We’ve got a lot of assets. We’re not necessarily in that asset-build stage like we were a little while ago, and so we’ve got the luxury of being patient and just seeing what comes our way."
The Blackhawks haven't made the playoffs since the expanded postseason in 2020. The last time they made a regular postseason was in 2017.