Taylor Hall unable to return to Bruins’ lineup!

Boston Bruins forward Taylor Hall has been absent since February 25 thank to a lower body injury he suffered on the team road swing. While he has returned to team practice and reportedly feels ready to come back from LTIR list, the Bruins cannot facilitate his return.

Darren Dreger explained on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN how the Bruins don’t have the cap space to facilitate such a roster move.

“We know, according to reports and video, that Hall has been skating with the Bruins for several days now. Sources say that he feels he is ready. The problem is the Bruins don’t have the cap space to activate Hall. Now the NHL playoffs are less than three weeks away so it’s going to be interesting to see how the Bruins manage this situation or, if like the Tampa Bay Lightning a few years ago, they try and stretch it out until the start of the postseason so it’s something that I’m sure other clubs are paying attention to as well.”

When Hall was placed on long-term injured reserve in March, the Bruins were able to absorb the salary of Tyler Bertuzzi, whom they acquired in a swap with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL trade deadline. Boston saved as much as $6 million by placing Hall on LTIR.

But now that he’s ready to return, money is too tight… Per Cap Friendly, Boston currently has just $39,062 in available cap space, which is far from enough to bring Hall back.

The NHL rules would however allow the Bruins to bring Hall back for the postseason without going over the salary cap. This is a loophole that was used by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021 with star forward Nikita Kucherov, and it was potentially part of Boston’s plan all along.

The Bruins have already clinched a playoff spot and with just nine games left in the regular season, it makes sense that Hall will only return once the postseason gets underway in mid-April.

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