Report: Sabres turned down insane offer for Taylor Hall

It’s been over three years since the Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson trade rocked the hockey world. The shocking, one-for-one deal saw Hall, a former 1st overall pick and a budding superstar, shipped from the Edmonton Oilers to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for underachieving former 4th overall pick Adam Larsson. Now, while Larsson has been a stellar player for the Oilers over the past three seasons, Hall has emerged as one of the NHL’s best players. In fact, Hall put up a remarkable 39 goals and 93 points in the 2017-18 campaign and was rewarded as league MVP with the Hart Memorial Trophy. 

But, here’s the thing… the Hall for Larsson swap almost didn’t happen. 

According to a report from Oilers insider Jason Gregor of TSN1260 and Oilers Nation, the Oilers offered Hall up to the Buffalo Sabres in the hopes of landing blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen. The Sabres, incredibly, declined.

Check it out:

Now… to be fair, Ristolainen was coming off a 41 point breakout season with the Sabres at the time of the proposed deal, so it’s understandable as to why they’d want to hold on to their player. But… this is Taylor Hall, former 1st pick and future MVP we’re talking about! 

In any case, the deal obviously never went through but it just goes to show how just how committed then-Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli was to getting rid of Hall regardless of the return.