Taylor Hall met with the media via Zoom Monday morning after the Bruins officially announced they had acquired the 29-year-old left wing along with Curtis Lazar from the Sabres in exchange for Anders Bjork and a second-round pick.
Hall, Lazar and defenseman Mike Reilly (acquired from the Senators) are all driving to Boston -- Hall and Lazar from Buffalo, Reilly from Ottawa -- on Monday so they can avoid the quarantine that would come with flying. All three could be available for Tuesday night’s game, which coincidentally is against Buffalo. Lazar had been nursing a lower-body injury recently, but said he is “pretty much good to go now.”
Hall said he was “very excited” to join the Bruins, a team he was “very close” to joining this past offseason in free agency.
“Really close. I was ready to come to Boston,” Hall said of free agency. “It didn’t work out, and then I had to choose between some other options. But I’ve always had a ton of respect for the Bruins organization and the city of Boston. I came to Boston with [Tyler] Seguin in 2010 just before the draft, and I loved the city, loved the fanbase, the way they care about hockey. Every time I’ve come to Boston since then, I’ve always really enjoyed my time there. It’s a city I have a lot of respect for as a sports city, and I can’t wait to get there.”
Hall said that once he knew he was going to be traded, Boston was at the top of his list. While he didn’t go into too many details, he said his no-movement clause helped him end up with the Bruins.
“I’ll say that, yeah, definitely the no-move really helped me become a Bruin,” Hall said. “It’s been a team that, since I knew I would be traded the last few weeks, it was a team that I really wanted to join and really wanted to be a part of.
“Once I knew there was a possibility I’d be traded, Boston was basically number one on the list of teams that I wanted to go to. Kevyn Adams, the GM [in Buffalo], was just fantastic in the way that he treated me and the way that he went about the situation, knowing that I wanted to play for the chance to win the Stanley Cup. He worked it out to a team that I really wanted to go to, and I’ll always be thankful to him for that. … Bit of a circuitous route to get here, but looking at it in the summer, this is a team in Boston that I would’ve loved to have played for, and I’m here now. So I’m very excited about that.”
Hall said he would definitely be open to signing an extension with the Bruins, but that he knows he has to play better than he has so far this season and that right now he is just focused on helping Boston win any way he can.
“I’d love to be a Bruin for a few years,” Hall said. “It’s obviously been a bad year for me personally. I need to play well. I need to contribute. And most of all, I want to be a part of a team that wins games, and I really believe that we can do that here. That’s really my main goal. I think it’s been a lot of distractions this year and a lot of things that really haven’t gone well. Confidence-wise, the team here in Buffalo just never got off on the right foot. I think the best way to get confidence is to be a part of a winning team and to make yourself part of the bigger solution, and that’s what I’m looking forward to doing.”
Hall had just two goals and 17 assists in 37 games for the Sabres this season. While the underlying numbers in terms of driving play and creating scoring chances have still been very good, his finishing, which had already been in decline, has dropped off a cliff. He addressed both his own and the team’s struggles in Buffalo this season.
“It was such a whirlwind of a year,” Hall said. “It went pretty badly obviously. … We had the COVID outbreak and we couldn’t get our footing after that. For myself, obviously it wasn’t the season I would’ve like to have had, not even close. These last few days, you do some soul-searching and look back on what you could do better, and look forward to the future. Obviously I’m so happy and excited to be a part of the Bruins. I can’t wait to play and can’t wait to be a part of a group like that.
“…Unfortunately right now, I’m not the most confident hockey player. Throughout this year, there’s been a lot of struggles, and obviously goal-scoring has been probably the biggest one. I’ve gotta find a little bit of that part of my game back. I don’t think it’s completely lost or anything like that. I’m not expecting to come and score 93 points in Boston, but I want to be a part of a winning team, and whatever I have to do to do that, that’s what I’m here to do. I still believe in myself a lot as a hockey player.”