Sabers have agreed to trade Taylor Hall with the Bruins in a deal that will see Curtis Lazar leave for Boston, Buffalo receiving Anders Bjork and a second-round pick in 2021, an ESPN confirmed source.
Hall dropped its motion clause to facilitate the transaction, which is pending a commercial call. Sabers retain 50 percent of Hall’s salary, the source said.
TSN first reported the full trade deal on Sunday night.
Hall earned MVP honors in the 2018 league while with the New Jersey Devils, but has now been traded twice in two years.
After the Devils traded Hall with coyotes from Arizona during the 2019-20 season, Hall signed a one-year, $ 8 million contract with Sabers as a free agency last season. The 29-year-old relied on himself to increase his value while playing on Jack Eichel’s wing.
Instead, the Buffalo season was a disaster. The Sabers endured a series without 18 victories, the longest in the era of the salary cap, and fired Ralph Krueger in March. Eichel was injured and Hall scored just two goals in 37 games.
Hall’s 0.51 points per game is the weakest of his career and has a minus-21 rating, the fourth weakest in the NHL this season.
Hall and Buffalo have shown mutual interest in a new contract earlier this season, but Sabers continues.
In his 11-year career, Hall has played in just 14 games in the playoffs. Now, he joins a team from Boston, which is trying to squeeze at least one more Stanley Cup, which has lost its veteran core. After parting ways with captain Zdeno Chara and veteran defender Torey Krug in the offseason, the Bruins have been working in 2021.
Boston currently ranks fourth in the playoffs in the Eastern Division. However, the Bruins have a young blue line and rank fifth in the weakest league in goals 5 to 5 in 60 minutes on the Natural Stat Trick.
Prior to the Hall deal, the Bruins bought defender Mike Reilly from the Ottawa senators for a third-round pick.