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Posted By: Chris Ransom on 6/29/2016

Taylor Hall and Adam Larsson. Two pieces involved in a blockbuster trade.

Who the New Jersey Devils got!

New Jersey Devils New Jersey got Taylor Hall. Hall was Edmonton's line 1 left winger and probably their only good left winger on the roster. Hall played all 82 games in 2015-2016 after coming off a season ending injury in 2014-2015. He led the Oilers with 65 points last season. Last year was Hall's first season where he played all 82 games after injuries affected him early in his career. The only other player that played all 82 games for the Oilers was Mark Letestu.

Who The Edmonton Oilers got!

Edmonton Oilers Edmonton gave up the first pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. In return they got Adam Larsson the fourth overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Larsson did well as a line 3 defender as a rookie getting the Devils to the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals. He struggled the next two seasons going down to the AHL to play for the Albany Devils. New Jersey brought him back in 2014 after his contract ran out. Larsson has been dominant on the Devils first line for the last two seasons. Larsson posted a career best 24 points in 2014-2015, and followed that up playing all 82 games for the first time in his career in 2015-2016.

Who won this trade? New Jersey won this trade. The Oilers have a surplus of right wingers in Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov, and Jesse Puljujarvi. Edmonton may have improved their defense enough with the addition of Larsson. The Oilers now lack a line 1 left winger and will have to reload at left wing the same way the Oilers have had to reload on defense.

Andrew Ference is still the Oilers team captain and Taylor Hall is now in New Jersey. Taylor Hall goes from making Canadian Hockey fans happy to playing hockey in New Jersey where he will have to please Chris Christie. The only reason to like this trade for the Oilers is you get a defender.

I'm giving the Devils an A+ grade here. The Devils have needed a line 1 left winger for a while and finally got that in Taylor Hall who should have been promoted to team captain over Ference. Hall was disappointed about being traded to the Devils. The Oilers get a C grade though because this trade hurts the Oilers even if their defense improves. Teams can put two forwards on the Oilers center or a defender and center on McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, and Drasaitl to double team the centers and double team the right wingers forcing the Oilers backup left wingers to get all their goals. Doing that will make it almost impossible for Edmonton to score. Drasaitl was second on the Oilers to Hall with 51 points after Hall had 65 points so New Jersey clearly won this trade.

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