Rumor: Two teams emerge as front runners for Hall after Avalanche drop out.

It sounds like former St. Louis Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo is likely headed to Las Vegas, a move that would take the top free agent defenseman off the market, and that means that all the attention from around the league is likely to shift to the top free agent forward on the market this season, former Arizona Coyotes forward Taylor Hall.

Hall has been linked to several teams, including the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, and many more, but thus far has not made a decision and has not given us any indication of which way he might be leaning. A report from Colorado Avalanche insider Adrian Dater on Sunday may have narrowed the field considerably however, with Dater reporting that the Colorado Avalanche have pulled themselves out of the Hall sweepstakes. 

The Avalanche made the decision to pull the trigger on a trade for forward Brandon Saad on Saturday and Dater cites that as the primary factor behind the Avalanche backing out on Hall. The addition of Saad comes with a $5 million hit against the cap, the Blackhawks retained $1 million of Saad's $6 million cap hit, which now leaves the Avalanche with just over $9.96 million in cap space for next season. It would no doubt be possible for Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic to work Hall into his current cap situation, but with players like Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar in need of new contracts next season I can see why he would want to leave himself more flexibility.

So where does that leave the Hall situation? Well according to Dater with the Avalanche pulling out of the race "the two most likely teams on Hall's shortlist" are now the Boston Bruins and the Nashville Predators. The Bruins currently have $11 million in projected cap space and on Saturday Bruins general manager Don Sweeney refused to deny that he had spoken to Hall's camp in a move that certainly raised some eyebrows. Hall would no doubt be a solid fit for the Bruins, but there certainly has been a mixed reaction from the Bruins fan base in regards to the rumors linking them to Hall.

As for the Predators they are currently looking at over $14 million in available cap space, so they would also be in a great position to make Hall a significant offer. The Predators do however have restricted free agent Luke Kunin who still needs a new deal and they also have some spots to fill at the forward position after losing players like Nick Bonino, Mikael Granlund, Kyle Turris, Craig Smith and Austin Watson to free agency, so that will no doubt eat up some of that available space.