Chicago Blackhawks' Taylor Hall to Undergo Season-Ending Surgery
Former Hart Trophy winner and five-time NHL All-Star Taylor Hall will miss the rest of the season due to surgery on his right knee.
Hall to Undergo Surgery on Right Knee
Former Hart Trophy winner and five-time NHL All-Star Taylor Hall will undergo surgery on his right knee and is expected to miss the rest of the season, the Chicago Blackhawks announced Thursday.
Coach Luke Richardson said Hall will have ACL surgery.
"He's very disappointed," Richardson said. "But it just came from [an] accumulation of a bunch of little injuries in the game and even in practice the other day. It just became unstable that we have to fix that now."
Hall's Injury History
Hall, who had two goals and four points in 10 games, was injured when he was hit by the Tampa Bay Lightning's Michael Eyssimont on Nov. 9. Hall returned in Saturday's loss at Nashville and logged more than 17 minutes in Sunday's loss against Buffalo before missing Wednesday's defeat at Columbus with what was previously described as an undisclosed injury.
"A guy just pulled him down. It was just a nothing play, and just the way he fell on it, that was kind of one of the last straws," Richardson said. "Then he tried to get through it and in practice he just caught a rut and it finalized him."
Hall, 32, had already missed six games this season with a lower-body injury and a shoulder ailment.
Impact on the Blackhawks
The Blackhawks acquired Hall in an offseason trade from the Boston Bruins, who were looking to shed salary cap space and did so by moving on from him with two years remaining on a contract worth $6 million annually.
Getting Hall was thought to benefit the Blackhawks in several ways, the main one being that he could serve as a linemate and mentor to Connor Bedard, the Regina Pats center Chicago took with the No. 1 pick of this year's draft.
Placing Hall with Bedard would give the 18-year-old, who has been touted as the NHL's next generational talent, an experienced, prolific winger who could guide him on and off the ice through an important time in the Blackhawks' rebuilding effort.
