Taylor Hall could be more than just a rental for the Arizona Coyotes.
The 28-year-old forward, who was traded to Arizona from the New Jersey Devils on Monday, can become an unrestricted free agent July 1. But his agent said in remarks published Friday not to rule out him signing with the Coyotes prior to free agency.
"So now there's a possibility for Arizona, and yes, it's absolutely a possibility," Hall's agent, Darren Ferris, told The Athletic. "It gives Arizona an opportunity that it probably would not have been afforded for him to consider in the future because you just don't know where the mindset would be at the end of the year.
"Now you get a chance to have him in there, have him get an idea of what it's like to be in Arizona, and I have the feeling with the way [Taylor] approaches things that he will really like Arizona and the lifestyle there. He is going to see that, 'This might be a place where I can play for a while.'"
Hall was acquired by the Coyotes with forward Blake Speers for forward prospects Nicholas Merkley and Nate Schnarr, defenseman prospect Kevin Bahl, a conditional first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, and a conditional third-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.
Hall had an assist on the game-winning goal in his Coyotes debut, a 3-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, and had an assist in an 8-5 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. He has 27 points (six goals, 21 assists) in 32 games this season.
"It's never an open-and-shut case where you say, 'It's going to free agency, I don't care what you offer'," Ferris said. "That's just not true, "Every situation is different. Every player is approached differently, and every situation has pros and cons to doing it earlier or later. All of those [pros and cons] are presented to a player, and we do extensive research and fact-finding and analytics, and there's a lot to it before we present an idea to a player, so at least he knows what his rights are and what his options are."
Hall, who had 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 33 games last season, won the Hart Trophy as League MVP in 2017-18 when he had 93 points (39 goals, 54 assists) in 76 games and helped the Devils reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in six seasons.
The Coyotes (20-13-4), who are tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division, visit the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-D, FS-A, FS-A Plus, NHL.TV). Arizona has not made the playoffs in the past seven seasons.
Chayka said this week that the Coyotes would wait to talk to Hall about a contract until after the season.
"I think 31 teams want to sign Taylor Hall, that's a no brainer," Chayka said on NHL @TheRink podcast. "He's been [in the] top 10 in scoring, he's an MVP, he's in the prime of his career. He's an athletic specimen. He's a guy that has won at all levels and now he wants to win at the NHL level.
"Our approach is of course we want to sign him. I don't know if the process would make sense to go to him right off the bat and start talking. ... In that sense, I think we are going to wait until the end of the season. Hopefully it's late. Hopefully we can get into June and talk then. At the point we are done playing, we'll sit down. ... We're certainly hopeful and expecting that Taylor will see it the same way and we can have a discussion when we have something to talk about. For now, he's coming into a new situation. He's got to play and he has to understand what he is dealing with, and then we will go from there."
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