NHL Rumors: Taylor Hall, and the Calgary Flames
As Taylor Hall heads into free agency, winning is probably his main focus. Keys to the offseason for the Calgary Flames.
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Hall looking to win

Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com: Taylor Hall said that winning is probably his main priority heading into free agency.

In Hall’s 10 NHL seasons, he’s only made the Stanley Cup Playoffs twice.

“I think the Coyotes have a bright future. They have some great guys, some good young players. When I get around to crossing that bridge and I kind of come to what I want to do, we’ll see.

“But yeah, I’d say it’s pretty much all winning. I don’t think the money’s going to be what it was maybe before COVID or before the season, but that’s fine. I think we get paid a lot of money to play a game, and we’ll see what happens.”

Hall adds that he doesn’t know what to expect with free agency.

Keys to the Calgary Flames offseason

Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski of ESPN: Looking at some of the offseason questions and decisions the Calgary Flames are facing.

The future of Johnny Gaudreau: He has two years left on his deal at a $6.75 million salary cap hit. He’s coming off a second-lowest offensive season. He doesn’t have any trade protection. There has been some trade speculation already – sending him to an East Coast team – and then the Flames sign Taylor Hall.

Resolve their coaching situation: Geoff Ward has been their interim coach since last November. Ward had a decent regular season and got past the play-in round. There is a big group of coaches that are available, so that works against Ward.

Defensive personnel changes on the way? They have pending unrestricted free agents in T.J. Brodie, Travis Hamonic, Derek Forbort, Erik Gustafsson, Michael Stone, and Cam Talbot. Talbot had a good regular season but his playoffs didn’t end get. Talbot could be back but there are going plenty of goaltending options available this offseason.