When word got out that the New Jersey Devils had put Taylor Hall on the trade block — before they eventually sent him to the Arizona Coyotes — some fans in Edmonton wondered if a reunion between the Oilers and the 2010 first-overall pick could happen.
However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that there were two reasons why the Oilers ultimately decided not to bid on Hall — lack of recent draft picks and a willingness to hold on to their top defence prospects.
“There was a limit about how much they wanted to pay,” Friedman said on Saturday Headlines.
Friedman specifically named Evan Bouchard, Philip Broberg and Dmitri Samorukov as three defencemen the Oilers did not want to part with. He also pointed out that Edmonton has had limited selections in recent drafts and were looking to fill the cupboards again.
“I think they looked at it and said ‘we’ve given up too many draft picks lately, it’s not something we want to do this time around,'” Friedman said.
The Coyotes gave up three prospects and two conditional draft picks that could both potentially become first-rounders to get Hall from the Devils.
Hall, 28, is in the final year of a seven-year, $42-million contract he signed with the Oilers in 2012 and is expected to become the biggest free agent when the markets open on July 1. The Oilers traded Hall to the Devils for Adam Larsson in June of 2016.
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