Blackhawks Trade Rumors: 5 Landing Spots Listed for Taylor Hall and Ryan Donato

The Chicago Blackhawks certainly haven't made the strides they'd hoped to make in Connor Bedard's second year as their rebuild trudges along. They will once again be sellers at the trade deadline, and the two players most likely to be moving on are former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall and veteran center Ryan Donato.

In fact, Hall admitted after practice on Wednesday that he expects to be traded.

“I came into this year wanting to be a Blackhawk for years to come. I don’t know if that’s going to be the case anymore.”

Both Hall and Donato are expected to be able to bring back a third-round pick in return for the Hawks.

Julian Gaudio of The Hockey News has proposed five most likely landing spots for one of these veterans in a trade (in alphabetical order).

Boston Bruins

The B's are treading a fine line between buying or selling this season, but one area they certainly need help with is secondary scoring. The Bruins are quite familiar with what Hall can do, as he posted 20 goals and 61 points with the team in 2021-22, his best season since his MVP year back in 2018. He followed that up with 16 goals in 61 games for Boston the year after, before an injury-plagued season last year in Chicago.

This season, the 33-year-old has just eight goals thus far, but the Bruins can see beyond that.

Detroit Red Wings

Yes, the Red Wings are hot, but they could still use another skilled forward, and Gaudio even suggests that Hall would be a nice "stop-gap" to play alongside Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond on the top line.

Los Angeles Kings

Either Donato or Hall could add some nice secondary scoring for the Kings as they aim to keep their strong play this season going. They currently rank 18th in the NHL in goals per game.

New Jersey Devils

If the Bruins are a team that knows what Hall can deliver, where does that put the Devils in the lineup to have a reunion? Hall won the Hart Trophy with New Jersey and had his greatest success during his 15-year career in his 3 1/2 seasons there. He's obviously not the 26-year-old Hart version anymore, but he could play a great complementary role on the wing. Donato could also be a nice piece on the third line for the Devils.

Vancouver Canucks

Of course, there's a lot of balls up in the air with the Canucks, and who knows how the roster will look after the dust settles on a potential Elias Pettersson and/or JT Miller trade (not to mention unsigned pending UFA Brock Boeser). But whichever way they go, Gaudio notes that either Hall or Donato would be an improvement over the likes of Nils Hoglander and Phil Di Giuseppe.