Devils will meet with Hall well before July 1st
Corey Masisak of The Athletic: New Jersey Devils forward Taylor Hall is eligible to sign a contract extension after July 1st.
If the Devils find out that Hall doesn’t want to sign an extension this offseason, they can look at trading him or risk potentially losing him for nothing if he plays out the year.
Hall’s agent Darren Ferris said last month that Hall loves the Devils and the fans base.
GM Ray Shero on Deb Placey’s NHL Executive Suite podcast said it’s their intention to sit down with him after the season to see how he feels.
“The intention is to sit down somewhere after the season, well before July 1, and just … it’s not like, ‘Hey, here’s the contract, sign it up.’ It’s like anything. If we’re getting into the longer term with a free agent, what are you selling, what are we doing? So they need to know that and I want to know that from their standpoint. I think the respect and relationship both ways has been really good, and he’s an important player for our franchise certainly. That will be the hope, sitting down and something that will work for both of us, longer term. If that’s meant to be, and we’d like to have that happen. And we’ll see what happens at the end of the season when we sit down.”
Babcock comments on the speculation there’s a riff with Dubas
Kristen Shilto of TSN: Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on speculation that there is riff between him and general manager Kyle Dudas.
“Whatever people speculate or think, I don’t think that’s the case,” Babcock said after the Leafs practice. “I know Dubie and I talk all the time. We’ve talked about this since this happened. That relationship is so important. There’s going to be a storm once in a while. There just is. You’d like to say everything perfect and maybe sometimes you don’t, but the intent .”
Babcock never denied there was any tension between the two. He did clarify that his earlier comments weren’t directed at one person.
“If there was any slap at anyone , it sure wasn’t intended. That’s not what I meant to say,” Babcock said. “We have to keep improving our depth. That’s what Dubie is trying to do, that’s what Jimmy Paliafito is doing, our pro scouts, myself, Sheldon developing players ; we’re all trying to do it so we can get to be like these teams.”
Lance Hornby: Babcock continue:
“There will be a shit storm once in awhile. You’d like to say everything perfectly. Sometimes you don’t. Dubie and my relationship isn’t as good as it’s gonna be four years from now. Mine with Ken Holland wasn’t as good in my first year as my 10th”