This Taylor Hall injury news is not great for the Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the worst teams in the NHL. With this being the season following the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery win, nobody expected them to be a good team right away so it makes sense.

However, they do want to surround number one pick Connor Bedard with enough talent for him to have a good rookie year. He is already on the ground running in the NHL as he leads all rookies in points and already has 10 goals.

One of the players that they surrounded him with is Taylor Hall. Of course, Hall was a number-one pick himself back in 2010 by the Edmonton Oilers. He has bounced around a bit but has won a Hart Trophy as league MVP.

When Hall assisted on Connor Bedard’s first career NHL goal, that was the fourth time he assisted on the first goal of a first-overall pick.

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to be without Taylor Hall for a long time

We were handed an unfortunate bit of Thanksgiving hockey news on Thursday. Taylor Hall is going to miss the remainder of the 2023-24 season with the Blackhawks because of injury.

Hall has been hurt a lot so far to start this season but it is surgery on his right knee that is going to keep him out for the rest of the year. This is a very tough break for him.

The season will end for Hall after he played in 10 games with two goals and two assists for four points. He never got a chance to get in a rhythm as there was often time in between games for him.

Hall is 32 years old and he has next year left on his contract making 6 million dollars against the cap. He should still have a lot of hockey left in the tank as long as he returns healthy.

Hall isn’t the only one going on IR either. Andreas Athanasiou is going to be out retroactive to November 9th with a groin injury. He will not be out for the season so it isn’t as big of news. He will still be very missed though.

In their place, the Blackhawks have called up Joey Anderson and Cole Guttman. This isn’t the type of replacement that is of equal value but it will have to do for now. We’ll see how everybody responds to this news when the Hawks take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday.

This team has the future on their mind. As long as Bedard and the other kids’ development goes well, the team will be happy with how the season went. They may even have a very nice prize waiting for them at the end of the season with the 2024 NHL Draft.