Yesterday afternoon, Ray Shero pulled a rabbit from his hat and made a trade nobody expected by acquiring Taylor Hall from the Edmonton Oilers for Adam Larsson in a straight one-for-one swap. Larsson had struggled early on in his career but came into his own over the last season and a half while Taylor Hall remains one of the top forwards in the league. There had been rumblings that Hall would be moved over the last 48 hours, but not many expected the Devils to come out on top in the Taylor Hall sweepstakes.

A Closer Look at Hall’s Numbers

The Devils are getting a bonafide, perennial scoring forward in Taylor Hall. Over the last four seasons, Hall has scored at a rate of 2.49 points per 60 minutes at even strength. That’s third best in the NHL for forwards AND defensemen. Only Sidney Crosby and Jamie Benn have scored at better rates than Hall. He also has a career Corsi of 50.1% (via hockey-reference). Considering Edmonton has had some downright terrible teams during Hall’s time there, this is pretty impressive. Hall is an elite play-maker as well. From 2012-16, he’s tallied 1.66 assists per 60 at even-strength. Only Joe Thornton and Sidney Crosby have better assist rates than him.

Hall’s goals for per 60 while on the ice at even-strength from 2012-16 is 2.83. To put that in perspective, Kyle Palmieri is the Devil that comes the closest to Hall at 2.41 and most of that is a result of his time in Anaheim. And while Hall is not a 40 goal scorer, he gets the job done at even-strength, which is the Devils biggest weakness. In 2015-16, he tallied 26 goals, 22 of which came at even-strength. Over the last four seasons, Hall had the most even-strength goals (182) on Edmonton with Jordan Eberle in second with 178 (via Puckalytics).

In six NHL seasons, Hall has scored 20 goals or more four times and has never finished with less than 20 assists in a season and hit a career-high 53 assists in 2013-14. He has 328 points in 381 games, which comes out to an average of 0.86 points a game. He’s also averaged 55 points a season, which is incredible when you consider that’s his average.

Analyzing the Trade

Over the last four years, Larsson has a -2.9 Corsi relative (via Hockey Analysis). Simply put, that means his opponents shoot almost three more shot attempts when Larsson is on the ice than compared to his teammates. Some perspective on that stat: Anton Stralman has a +5.7 Corsi Rel, the best in the league for defensemen, while Dan Girardi is at a league worst -5.1 differential over that time span. Larsson has been confined to largely defensive roles, specifically in 2015-16 where he played almost 45% of his shifts in the defensive zone and had a -3.7 Corsi relative. However, he was consistently logging minutes against his opponent’s best competition this past season and all things considered, he faired decently. He doesn’t have the offensive output that a top-pair defenseman has, but he also never played on the power play in New Jersey.

Larsson is a good defenseman. Is he an upgrade for Edmonton’s blue line? For sure, but he still does not even come close to equating the value of Taylor Hall. The Oilers traded away one of the best, young forwards in the game for a very solid player in Larsson, but he’s not an elite, top-pair defenseman. If Edmonton was able to swipe a first-round pick or a blue-chip prospect or both from the Devils, then maybe you could try to justify this trade from Edmonton’s perspective. Even then, it’s hard to fathom.

Ray Shero won this trade hands down and made the Devils better in the process. The Devils get a 24-year old, high-scoring forward on a team friendly deal that has him at a cap hit of $6 million a year through 2019-20. Hall gives the Devils an offensive threat they haven’t had since Parise or Kovalchuk and could be reunited with old Windsor Spitfires teammate, Adam Henrique. New Jersey has a hole on defense now and I’m sure it’ll be addressed, but they needed scoring desperately and addressed it in trading for Hall. There’s a lot to be excited about with this trade and is sure to give the Devils hope heading into the 2016-17 season.