Devils' Taylor Hall is still very angry about being traded by the Oilers

By Pete Blackburn
Published

When the Edmonton Oilers traded Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils this summer, it was widely considered one of the most surprising one-for-one hockey trades in recent memory. After all, Hall is a former top overall pick (though so is about half of the Oilers roster at this point) and one of the most elite left wingers in the game. And he's just 24 years old.

But Edmonton desperately needed defense, and Hall is the guy that they chose to send to New Jersey in exchange for Adam Larsson, a good but not yet great 23-year-old blue-liner. The talent gap between the two guys involved was enough to leave a good portion of the hockey world shaking their heads in disbelief.

In the aftermath, Hall wasn't shy about how hurt he was by the deal. He admitted he felt slighted and compared it to a painful breakup. And with the star forward now at training camp with his new team, it doesn't appear his feelings have changed much.

"Just the way everything went down, I still hold a bitter resentment towards them," said Hall about the Oilers, according to NJ.com.

If nothing else, that's a refreshing piece of brutal honesty that we rarely see from professional athletes after a trade. Of course, Hall also mentioned that he's looking forward to what lies ahead.

New Jersey Devils defensemen Adam Larsson (left) and Edmonton Oilers forward Taylor Hall switched places. 

"I'm excited about what I can do here [in New Jersey] and the team I can be on," Hall continued. "I think it's a great change of scenery. I wish the players on that team all the best, but I'm focused and excited about what I can do here."

"[The trade] was a whirlwind," Hall said, "but I think it's going to be a day I look back on, and I think it's going to be a really good thing for me."

Although trades are a nature of the business, it's hard to blame players for having an emotional response, and/or taking it personally. That's especially true in Hall's case, who was often the best player on some truly terrible Oilers teams since being drafted No. 1 overall by the organization in 2010.

Though Edmonton has also added an impressive stable of young talent — guys like Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, and Leon Draisaitl — and could be soon turning the corner with a bright future ahead of them. So for Hall to be dealt just ahead of that has got to be frustrating.