To say Taylor Hall has been well-travelled over his 15-year NHL career would be an understatement.
The former Hart Trophy winner has been on seven teams since the Edmonton Oilers selected him first overall in 2010, and he was considered an ancillary move in the massive three-way deal that brought Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in January.
The 33-year-old ended up fitting in with his new club while Rantanen got traded again to the Dallas Stars. On Wednesday, the Hurricanes announced they signed Hall to a three-year, $9.5-million contract extension worth about $3.167 million annually.
"(Getting term was a) big part of that, just moving around, and now that I have a family, it's important to be somewhere where I'm comfortable," Hall said on a media call on Wednesday. "This team, right from the moment I got here, made me feel comfortable. The coaching staff pushed me, and the guys in the room have been just incredible at making me feel welcome and making me feel like this is a place that I want to be."
The Calgary native struggled with injuries in his first six seasons with Edmonton and was dealt to the New Jersey Devils in 2016. With the Devils, he scored a career-high 93 points (39 goals, 54 assists) in 2018 and won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.
After failing to negotiate a contract extension, Hall was dealt as a rental to the Arizona Coyotes. The big left winger signed a one-year, $8-million deal with the Buffalo Sabres in 2020 to play under former Oilers coach Ralph Krueger, but his tenure with the Sabres was rough, and after scoring two goals in 37 games, Buffalo dealt him to the Boston Bruins.
Hall found his footing with the Bruins and signed a four-year, $24-million contract in 2021. After two seasons, Boston needed to clear salary and swapped him to the Chicago Blackhawks for a pair of minor leaguers.
With the Hawks, the intent was to have him play with 2023 top pick Connor Bedard, but a knee injury ended his season after only 10 games. In the final year of his deal, Hall avoided injury but was moved up and down the lineup. He was eventually folded into the Rantanen deal, in which the Hawks retained 50 percent of his salary.
With the Hurricanes, Hall posted 18 points in 31 games to finish the regular season.
Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky did not have the same issue of getting the veteran winger to sign in Carolina as he did with Rantanen.
"We've been talking since the day of the trade – I think we've had a sense of where it was going to be," Tulsky said. "Most of the conversations between myself and Taylor's agent, Darren (Ferris), we've been sort of hammering out some of the details of how some specifics of the deal would work."
"Darren was talking to Taylor, making sure he was comfortable with it. I don't think either of us ever doubted that it would get done. It was just a matter of finding the deal that got everybody what they wanted."
Hall played a part in the Hurricanes beating the Devils 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs, eliminating his former team on Tuesday. He had a goal and three points in five games while averaging 15:56.
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