Hall open to staying in Buffalo
Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News: Pierre LeBrun recently reported that there was a mutual interest between the Buffalo Sabres and Taylor Hall about a contract extension.
Yesterday Hall said that despite the way things have gone this season in Buffalo, he’d be open to talking extension.
“Yeah, I’m open to anything,” said Hall, who signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Sabres in October. “It’s not like I’ve had an amazing statistical year by any means so far this year. Just in saying that, I think I’ve enjoyed my time here. I really like the guys, the coaching staff, the way we’re treated as players and like we said from the start, my agent and myself, we’re open to anything. I was never treating this as a one-year thing. I was always coming into it open-minded and we’ll have to see what happens here, if there’s interest on their side. But yeah, of course I have interest.”
The Sabres could look at the option of trading Hall ahead of the trade deadline and then try to sign him in the offseason.
Canadian team may need to find a U.S. home for the semi’s
TSN: Pierre LeBrun notes that if Canada-U.S. border restrictions are relaxed by the time the Stanley Cup semi-finals are ready to go, the team from the North division may need to adopt a U.S. city.
“For example, let’s take the first-place Leafs. Would it make sense for them to play in Buffalo? The closest in proximity. That’s an idea that I know has been floated around.
What if the Winnipeg Jets come out of the Canadian Division? It would probably make sense for Winnipeg to play out of Minnesota. In fact, once the four Canadian teams clinch a playoff birth, my sense is that the league will look at those four Canadian teams and link up a U.S. adoptive city for all four, obviously, for the one team that advances to the semis.
As you said, the focus and the priority is hopefully for the border restrictions to loosen up so the Canadian team can stay home for the duration of the playoffs.”