TAYLOR HALL AIN'T NOTHING TO FIST WITH!

Great deal for both. EBs should sign for $100 less and tell Hall he has to buy groceries

AWESOME!

Photoshop contest: "The Future" - Create an image that envisions what Edmonton and the Oilers will look like in the year 2020 when Taylor Hall is in the last year of his contract. Cyborgs, three breasted women, three breasted chicken breasts, flying cars, flying three breasted cyborg women....? You decide. Be sure to include Taylor Hall and his bazzilions of dollars and stacks of Stanley cups.

Wanye can put all of the submitted images into the online OilersNation Art Gallery along side all of the other photo-shopped images and MS Paint drawings from ON history. Where is the link to the ON Art Gallery, I can't seem to find it...

That Horcoff comment was absolute gold, Wanya haha.

Here's hoping Ebs gets an identical contract. Or 7 years and $42,000,001.00

I believe you mean, "Smart move, MacT!"

A bargain now, and with the inflation in salaries we have seen it will be an even better bargain later. As much as it pains me, I have to say: "smart move Tambellini!"

I think some of you are dramatically over thinking a general statement a young guy made about never thinking that they would make that kind of money in their life with the professional negotiation of an NHL contract.

First, keep in mind that Hall was not likely involved in the negotiations, but rather that his agent, his lawyer, and various other staff from his agency undertook negotiations. Second, even at his young age, Hall is smart enough to understand that he was going to get a contract in that range.

He sells jerseys and seats.

Go away.

DSF does NOT put his kneck out, ever. He finds examples of past successes and questions why the Oilers didn't do that.

As if there weren't 28 other teams that also didn't do that.

Putting your kneck out would be coming up with a theory and supporting it with data and logic; then owning the results.

NOT just pointing to random teams and yelling we should have done that!

DSF reminds me a lot of Eklund. The only reason anyone pays the slightest bit of attention to what he says is because it's usually so stupid it can actually be pretty entertaining wondering what's next.

It's always fun to see how much a guy can pump out his chest and talk down to people when he is sitting behind his keyboard knitpicking stats and random bits of history to support his ideas.

True. He also drives play and creates space and opportunity every time he is on the ice.

Scary player to defend against.

HOLY POOP!! THIS IS THE BEST NEWS SINCE CHAD KROEGER AND AVRIL LAVIGNE ANNOUNCED THEY ARE GOING TO MARRY #CHAVRIL. #KTHKSBYE

The entry level deals for Hall,Ebs,Nuge and Nail are close to 4mil with bonuses. 7 more years @ 6 mil is a steal. Great contract.

you sir are an IDIOT.

Also, I would wager any GM in the league would have put his name on that contract.

I think LT says it best to describe the events of today.

"I'm going to have a beer, then I'm going to have another!"

only DSF can enrage a whole group of oiler fans by proposing something other than the popular opinion.

i like it.

What could go wrong with giving a 20 yr old 42 million dollars? Yet to put up 100 points in the NHL, it's a tad premature from my viewpoint.

I was going to just keep my mouth shut on this issue, but since you wanted yourself some Quicksilver ballet i thought i'd oblige.

DSF put his neck on the chopping block on this subject, he's doing a fine job questioning the wisdom of this deal. As an Oiler athletic supporter i'll keep my mouth shut and hope he outperforms this deal at any point over the next 8 yrs.

i see DSF as a fan, like the rest of us. what i get when i read his posts is that he very much dislikes management and wants the Oilers to be better. his delivery may be unappealing to most but not unworth merit.

I love that they signed him long term and all but I do still have some worries. 6 million to a player that hasn't broke the 60 point mark and hasn't had an injury free season to date. It just worries me man,what happens if he plateaus at 60 points a season, is he still worth the contract? If he annually misses 15-20 games due to injury? Would the fans treat him the same as the horcoff contract??? Can a team afford to have 5-6 forwards on 6 mil a piece contracts? Approx 30 million will be needed on the top 5 forwards and if you factor in 2 top defenseman you are looking at somewhere in the 42 to 44 million area. That would only leave approx. 26 million for the rest of the team at the current cap. I just hope that the management team has designed a plan with all these contracts already to make it work if they don't it could get rough.

What if he plateaus at 90 points per season? What if he goes injury free for the next 7 years, will the fans treat him like a God? Management has a plan. Your cup is half empty! Tell'em Wanye.....

$42 million sheets. That should keep his big-boy bed covered for the next few decades.

I'm having a hard time believing Tambellini hit the home run ball with this one considering Hall has said he never imagined he'd be seeing that kind of contract. I bet it was as easy as (cue smoke and dreamlike harp music)...

Tambellini: *Looks at Skinner contract. Gulps.* So Taylor, we were thinking about 7 years, sayyyy 6 or so a year. You good with that?

Hall: *Picks himself up off floor, whipes drool from chin* HELLZ YEAHHHH TAMBI!!!!

Total time for negotiation: 8.47 seconds (give or take a second)

Good day in Oil Country, one can only hope they (the kids) will all sign very similar deals and have them staggered a year or 2 apart.

Question: Out of Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins and Yakupov, who do you guys think out of this group will be career Oilers, if any?

I'm trying to think of a realistic answer and can't come up with one.

All the above

All long term contracts are 50/50 though. Locking up TSN's best player under 25 for 8 more years is a good day.

It also prevents RFA offers and shuts up the obligatory "Hall will be out as soon as he is a UFA" complainers.

Yep.

Led the Oilers to a 29th place finish.

Get out the checkbook.

Player coming off surgery, rewarded with a 6 Year contract without reference to his performance post surgery.

We've seen this movie before.

This contract may work out fine but it's totally based on wishing and hoping.

Tavares scored 81 points in his third season.

If Hall can best that this upcoming season, I'll shut up.

Wagers anyone?

No they're not.

Most players produce then get paid.

See Tavares, John for reference.

At least we can confirm the Tavares (John) is dating DSF

Wasn't TH about 0.9 ppg as a 20 yr old in the NHL? On a bad team? Yup - risky bet.

I'm still not convinced that Hall was the right choice at 1st OA, but I'm also very impressed by what he has shown. And looking at players at the $6M mark, I'd take Hall over a lot of others, including Camelhairy.

Hall led his team to 29th place, and Tavares pushed the Isles all the way to 27th! Woo Hoo!

The question is why is everyone questioning Hall and has no problem with Skinner? As was pointed out in a previous blog, Skinner had a career first year playing with Staal and dropped off dramatically last year but everyone is fine with his contract. Hall, had two solid years, improved on his first year in the second and had two freak injuries end his season twice. (plus a third freak injury took him out of a few more games.

As far as I am concerned, this is great news. I am kind of tired of all the doom and gloom. Yes it is possible that Eberle falls back to earth. Yes it is possible that Hall gets injured. Yes it is possible Whitney isn't fully recovered. Yes it is possible that Schultz doesn't cover the bet.

When are at least a few of these pessimists going to realize that:

A: It is possible Hall goes supernova this year. B: It is possible Eberle maintains his production. C. It is possible Whitney is healed and fully effective D. It is possible Schultz covers the bet E. It is possible Hemsky has a career Year F. It is possible Dubnyk proves he is a #1

We can all choose to look at the worst and after 6 years of Misery we are entitled. However, I choose to believe that our dues are paid and our time has come.

The new Dynasty is about to arrive. It may not come with the 5 shiny chalices the last one was here with but it sure will have a lot of success and excitement and I am pretty darn sure at least a couple of those shiny cups.

Also, when people talk about Hall saying he never thought he would get that type of money, and ST didn't due a good enough job negotiating. I would believe what he means is that as a kid, growing up, he never expected to get a 42 million dollar contract. I am sure he fully expected to get those types of dollars in the last couple of months. Hall is being gracious, something a lot of the commenters around here know nothing about.

My favorite thing about DSF is he's clearly propsing his own comments.

Or how about how the kids are going to flee the ship?

You can props your own comments?

Edit: yes you can!

Awwww... he said the Wu-Tang Clan was an obscure rap star.

I hear there is this new up-and-comer named Kanye, Wanye.

doing the math...if Hall plays every regular season game and goes seven games in every series to win seven Cups in a row he will play 770 games under this contract...that's a titch over 54 thousand dollars PER GAME actually played!!!

check out the potential addition of funds by subtraction of games lost through injury...K so if he plays 62 games per season and sweeps the seven series to win seven Cups in a row that's seventy seven thousand three hundred and forty three dollars and seven cents per game actually played...

is that Omphaloskepsis or what?

Fair to question the validity of the deal, but considering today's NHL - was there really another choice?? Unfortunately, NHL owners can't help themselves and sign these types of contracts setting up precedents for the next up and coming star...

Do I agree with giving Taylor Hall (or any other 20 year old with skill and a ton of upside) this type of cash this early into his career?? No... Is this contract fair considering what's happening in today's NHL - unfortunately, yes...

i disagree.

I'm not actually fist, am I?

edit - Nope.

Great to have him locked up long term. I was hoping for a bigger discount to base all of the other contracts off of, but I believe they got good value on this deal.

I am hoping Eberle will sign 7-10 yrs at 5 million a year but expect it to be a very similar contract to what Hall just signed.

Skeet skeet, mother******!

I hear what your saying and I really hope it works out that way but the lack of confidence I have in managment, specifically Tambo, can't be accurately measured. I just have a gut feeling that they will F*ck up the whole design and end up screwing over the team in the process.

It would make me feel a lot better if we knew he was making the deciions and such.

I think its a fair contract. I was hoping for more of a bargain (in the fives), and I think we could have got it based on halls statement that he never thought he would make that much. My only fear is what if yakupov or exceed him and find themselves closer to the 7mil threshold. Six time four is manageable, but enough overpays, and you cost yourselves quality depth players.

I was waiting for someone to go there, only took 13 comments.

Anything good happens and it must be MacT but any percieved bad it is always ST.

Anyway great signing by management.

Considering where Hall is at already , and where he is likely to be over the new contract - i'd say we did well at $6M/season in todays marketplace . Should Eberle get more , less or equal ? Considering where they are at now , and Hall being the younger talent i doubt Eberle will get a contract the equal of Hall .How much less is debateable .

Finally. Some movement by the Tambi-man. I was wondering why it took so long to lock these guys up. Six million per year is not too bad given what we pay Hemsky and Horcoff, and Hall's best years are still ahead of him. I hate to say this and jinx the contract, but there are no reports of any NMT/NTC's which would handicap our next GM, I mean, Tambi down the road in case the deal doesn't work out.

ALL HAIL HALL!

@Wayne

Do you mean far more then 5 million or far more then Hall at 6 million?

I am guessing we see matching contracts, but would prefer this came in lower.