Hurricanes veteran forward Taylor Hall still driven by one overarching NHL goal
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Taylor Hall, now 34, seeks one remaining goal: Win the Stanley Cup.
- Traded to Carolina on Jan. 24, 2025, Hall has upgraded the Canes’ scoring depth.
- This season Hall has 12 goals and 27 points in 52 games, showing versatility.
Taylor Hall was a few days shy of his 19th birthday the first time he came to Raleigh, a little sleepy eyed during an interview at The Umstead Hotel.
Hall was the first overall pick of the 2010 NHL draft, taken by the Edmonton Oilers. Much was expected of the slick, skilled forward, who had twice won the Memorial Cup with the Windsor Spitfires and enjoyed teen-idol status in Canada.
“Definitely there are expectations, but that comes from playing in a Canadian market,” Hall said in November 2010 before playing the Carolina Hurricanes. “I think you can take it personally, or you can take it with a grain of salt and make sure you’re playing your game and having fun every day you come to the rink.”
Flash forward to 2026.
Hall is 34 years old, married and a father. He has played nearly 1,000 NHL games, been traded five times, has been named the NHL’s most valuable player, and now is with the Hurricanes, his seventh NHL team.
“There is one thing left, basically the only thing I want to accomplish,” Hall said last week.
The Stanley Cup.
Carolina calling
Now in his 16th year in the league, Hall said he still has fun coming to the rink. And especially with the Hurricanes, who have made him feel part of the group and a welcomed addition since his trade to Carolina on Jan. 24, 2025.
Hall was on the undercard of the mega trade that reverberated about the NHL. The Colorado Avalanche sent star forward Mikko Rantanen to Carolina for forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury, with draft picks also changing hands.
Another part of the deal, and almost overlooked: the Chicago Blackhawks sent Hall to the Hurricanes in the three-team transaction while retaining half of Rantanen’s salary.
“Taylor brings a lot of skill and some size and some speed, and we think he’s going to fit and upgrade our scoring punch also,” Canes general manager Eric Tulsky said after the trade.
Rantanen, visibly disgruntled in his 13 games with the Canes, was quickly sent on to the Dallas Stars, where he appears to be happy enough. Forward Logan Stankoven was sent to Carolina. And Hall has proven to be an upgrade with his speed, versatility and offensive skills.
“He’s been great,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said last week. “It’s not easy sometimes for anyone to come into a new lineup, but for a former MVP I think he’s done a great job of whatever you ask him to do, and however minutes, and who he’ll play with and what situations, he’s been really good.
“And I think this year he probably feels more comfortable in everything we’re doing. I think his play has been very solid.”
‘Whatever it takes’
Hall, who signed a three-year, $9.5 million contract with Carolina late last season, has been used on the wing on all the forward lines and on the power play. He has 12 goals and 27 points in 52 games this season, getting his 12th goal Saturday in the Canes’ 4-1 road win at Ottawa built around the 34 saves of goalie Brandon Bussi.
Hall had a few words with a referee after the Senators’ Dylan Cozens drove him head-first into the boards in the second period. No penalty was called and Hall expressed his displeasure in some profane terms, resulting in a two-minute unsportsmanlike penalty and then a 10-minute misconduct penalty.
After leaving the ice, Hall stood in the tunnel behind the Canes bench, glaring, more than heated.
But it’s that competitiveness, that fire, that continues to help drive him, keeping him productive deep in his career. It’s noticeable to his teammates.
“He’s been around a long time,” forward Seth Jarvis said. “He came in really young, won a Hart Trophy. He’s got a lot of knowledge. And just watching the way he approaches every day, and the way he takes care of his body and being able to be effective up and down the lineup, that’s the biggest thing that’s stuck out for me. That and his ability to adapt to whatever role he’s given.
“He’s willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
And off the ice?
“He’s hilarious,” Jarvis said. “Yeah, he can be quiet, but he has this dry humor that gets me laughing a lot. I love him.”
One goal: the Stanley Cup
Hall comes across has one of the most thoughtful of the Hurricanes players. He speaks in measured tones in media interviews, fully digesting a question before answering.
Hall, in an N&O interview last week, was asked about first coming into the NHL, about being the first pick of the draft and all that brought with it, leading to this response:
“I never thought I was generational and I never put that pressure on myself, that I needed to be one of the top three players in the league by my third year. Growing up playing hockey, I wasn’t like the best player all the time. I just had a pretty quick ascent once I started playing junior. To go No. 1, obviously everything happened so quickly. You’re still processing everything. You go from being in Grade 12 to a year later playing with men that go home to their families. I think there’s just a lot to process on and off the ice, trying to be the best player I can be and getting used to living on my own and paying bills and doing laundry. And it’s definitely a hard league. You learn that right off the bat.”
Hall’s hockey odyssey took him from Edmonton to the New Jersey Devils, where he won the Hart in 2017-18, to Arizona, Buffalo and Boston before Chicago. And now he’s with the Hurricanes, trying to help make them the best team in that hard league.
“We’re all good skaters in here and we’re all good players who have a good motor and a high work ethic,” Hall said. “I like to think I fit well with that type of play.
“We have younger guys, but it’s an older group, with a lot of guys with kids. We’re going through the same things off the ice, and we all want the same thing on the ice.”
The Stanley Cup. Only a few of the Canes players have won it. Hall wants to be part of that select group.
“I think we have a fantastic chance and that’s a big part of what I wanted to be here,” he said. “This team has had playoff success and seen what it takes. That’s the reason I’m still playing and want to keep playing.”
