Bruins trade former Hart Trophy winner to Blackhawks

Hall, 31, had been a member of the Boston Bruins since they acquired him in April 2021 leading up to the trade deadline. He was a pending unrestricted free-agent rental at the time but signed a four-year, $24 million contract to stay with the Bruins. He had eight goals and 14 points in 16 games after coming over in 2020-21 and delivered a strong first full season as a Bruin in 2021-22 with 20 goals and 61 points in 81 games, but he regressed this season, tallying just 16 goals and 36 points, limited to 61 games because of a lower-body injury. With Pavel Zacha forging such strong chemistry on Boston’s second line with David Krejci and David Pastrnak, Hall was mostly relegated to third-line duty on the left wing.

In moving his $6 million cap hit, the Bruins give themselves some crucial breathing room. They were squeezed against the cap because the performance bonus overages for Krejci and Patrice Bergeron dinged them for $4.5 million worth of 2023-24 cap space. It remains to be seen whether Boston, which now has close to $11 million in cap space, will attempt to re-sign left winger Tyler Bertuzzi or defenseman Dmitry Orlov. Both came over as 2023 trade-deadline rentals and were highly effective.

The Blackhawks, meanwhile, get two more seasons of Hall, who can now be expected to get a look in a first-line role alongside generational prospect Connor Bedard, who will be the No. 1 pick in Wednesday’s NHL Draft. Hall makes sense a mentor given he was the first-overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. Hall had a 16-team no trade list, but the Blackhawks were not on it, reports Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets.