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IMPACT ON HALL'S FANTASY VALUE
Elite left wing Taylor Hall should see a spike in fantasy value from the trade to the Arizona Coyotes. He had 25 points (six goals, 19 assists), 12 on the power play, and 109 shots on goal in 30 games with the New Jersey Devils but was minus-11. Hall moves up to 34th in NHL.com's forward rankings upon joining the Coyotes.
The Coyotes have a plus-10 goal differential and are tied with the New York Islanders and Dallas Stars for the best team save percentage in the NHL (.927) with elite starter Darcy Kuemper and viable backup Antti Raanta. Hall is guaranteed to have top-six lineup placement with exposure to at least one valuable forward in Phil Kessel, Clayton Keller and/or Nick Schmaltz. Another teammate who could benefit from the trade is forward Christian Dvorak, who's already among NHL.com's top 200 and could play center on Hall's line.
Hall, a potential 2020 unrestricted free agent, should have additional motivation in the second half of the season. Fantasy owners of Hall can expect an immediate improvement in production but should temper expectations of him returning similar value to his 1.22 points per game (93 points in 76 games) from 2017-18, when he won the Hart Trophy.
UPDATE: Hall assisted on Oliver Ekman-Larsson's goal against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday and played on a line with mostly Dvorak and Kessel.
READ: Fantasy top 100 forward rankings after Hall trade
IMPACT ON COYOTES TEAM FANTASY VALUE
-Power play could get stronger: The Coyotes' power play, which quietly ranks 10th in the NHL (20.7 percent), could have an even higher ceiling with Hall, who has 61 power-play points over his past 139 games. The best way for fantasy owners to tap into that would be to target buy-low defenseman Ekman-Larsson, who has been a fixture on the top unit despite an underachieving start to the season.
-Even-strength improvement: The Coyotes' offensive outlook improves significantly with the addition of a playmaker like Hall; Arizona is tied for 24th in goals per game (2.63) at the time of the trade and has the fifth worst 5-on-5 shooting percentage (7.0), which could drastically improve.
-Lineup placement, potential boost for Kessel: The Coyotes have been playing top forwards Kessel, Keller and Schmaltz on separate lines lately. Hall is likely to slot in on the first line and power play and could see time on the opposite wing of Kessel, which would provide the latter with an uptick in fantasy value. Kessel produced a point per game or better in each of his previous two seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins prior to being traded to the Coyotes on June 29.
-Low individual shooting percentages: From Kessel (8.2 percent) to Keller (6.5) to center Derek Stepan (6.8) and Ekman-Larsson (2.8), there's plenty of appeal in buying low on Hall's new teammates in fantasy hoping they improve over the final months of the regular season with the potential even-strength and/or power-play ripple effect.
