Sports

A Healthy Taylor Hall Could Do Wonders for Blackhawks in Bedard’s Second Season

Published

3 months ago

August 18, 2024

Admin

A Healthy Taylor Hall Could Do Wonders for Blackhawks in Bedard’s Second Season

The Chicago Blackhawks noticeably got better this summer by adding eight players in free agency and another through a trade. This is on top of a returning Taylor Hall who is fully recovered from the surgery he had last season. The hope is that he will be medically cleared to be back in games for the Blackhawks by preseason.

Unfortunately for Hall, the Blackhawks, and Connor Bedard, Hall played just 10 games and then got injured and was shut down for the rest of the season, though he did return for practice at the very end of the season.

Hall was expected to be Bedard’s winger on the top line after being acquired for dirt cheap by the Boston Bruins last summer as a cap dump situation. Hall has one season left on his deal to prove that it was a solid acquisition and make his case to stick around for the coming success of the Blackhawks in the proceeding seasons.

While Hall was expected to play top line minutes throughout the entirety of the 2023-24 season, the Blackhawks had money and were taking no chances with injuries or young players not stepping up right away this time around. The team added two more top-6 wingers in Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen who are going to challenge Hall for playing time and the spot alongside Bedard.

I believe there is only going to be one spot available on Bedard’s wing as Philipp Kurashev had the entire previous season to prove he has great chemistry and can produce beside a player of Bedard’s caliber.

Some may think that Hall will play the majority of the 2024-25 season on the second line, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but being dropped to the third line is a bit of a stretch right now. The only way I can see that is if Lukas Reichel shows great improvement and earns a spot in the top-6, Hall struggles coming off his knee surgery, and the rest of the top-6 players are firmly positioned to stay where they are.

It may not be easy for Hall to get back up to full speed and stay there as his speed is his best attribute. The hope is that he is medically cleared at the start of training camp and looks good. I also anticipate he gets into the majority of preseason games in order to get back up to speed faster.

Wherever Hall plays, the Blackhawks are going to have a much deeper team with him in the lineup and the best linemates for Bedard. That could be Hall or that could be a number of others. That remains to be seen.