Taylor Hall on free agency and where he’ll end up this offseason

It’s safe to say that with the entire world on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic that there’s a lot up in the air with regards to the NHL. Will the league be able to finish the 2019-20 season? Will we see a Stanley Cup champion? What happens to player contracts? When is the draft? When is free agency?

These are questions that literally no one has the answer to right now as we’re living in unprecedented times. 

What if the season is cancelled and we head straight to the offseason this summer? What happens to pending free agents? Are they just cut loose? That’s a major question facing guys like Alex Pietrangelo, Taylor Hall, Torey Krug, Mikael Granlund and Mike Hoffman? These are all legit star players who would represent a HUGE acquisition for whichever team inks them this offseason.

In the case of Hall, he’ll potentially be the biggest free agent on the market but he admits that he’s uncertain what the future has in store. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic recently caught up with Hall to hash things out and Hall was surprisingly forthcoming with some of his insights.

Take a look at some quotes below.

On the uncertainty of his situation:

“There’s a lot on my plate but it’s a lot of stuff that I can’t really decide,” he said. “I don’t decide when we come back to play, I don’t decide when free agency is going to be, if I make it there; so a lot of it is out of my hands. At this point in time, I’m trying to do my best to just really get some rest, enjoy time away and get excited for when we do play hockey again.’’

“It’s certainly a weird time,” the 28-year-old said. “It’s a weird time to potentially go into free agency. But that’s life. There’s a lot of people that are in worse spots off than me. I’m not too flustered about that. Hopefully, I can play a lot more years in this league. We all get paid pretty handsomely for what we do. So, it’s not really stressful in that way, it’s just more so the timing of when everything is going to come together I guess.’’

On potentially re-signing with the Arizona Coyotes:

“Both sides have interest in each other and Darren and John have talked a little bit, but there haven’t been any numbers tossed around or anything like that,” Hall said. “At this point, both sides are just waiting to see what happens with this.’’

On potentially signing a one-year bridge deal while the league tries to get back on its financial feet:

“I don’t really want to play through a contract year again,” he said. “Whether it was the reason I had an off-year or not, I’d rather get some security and try and sign a longer-term deal.’’

For the full article from LeBrun, click below: