Dreger: "I believe that Taylor Hall will be in play"
/Darren Dreger was on Toronto’s TSN 1050 on Monday afternoon.
On the firing of Dallas Eakins and what’s next:
“... These players will be embarrassed that Dallas Eakins had to go down because of their inability to respond. It’s not one player. It’s the collection of players that make up a sagging work ethic and lack of culture. But if you wanted to put a face on it, or a name to it, that’d be Taylor Hall. Taylor Hall, at least again from a culture standpoint - more in the room, not necessarily on the ice – hasn’t been what they hoped he would be.
“And so when MacTavish looks into his crystal ball and tries to see what might come his way via trade, he’s got to be looking to the trade deadline. And then beyond that obviously looking at the draft floor. Because if you’re moving a piece like Taylor Hall, and I believe that Taylor Hall will be in play, then the rate of return is always best when teams have flexibility in the summer.”
On how he must be a remarkable disappointment off the ice, if of all of those names that could be in play, Taylor Hall is on that list:
"Yeah. I think it speaks from a willingness to adapt. So I am choosing my words carefully in saying that. I don't - I'm not in that room... We gather our information from the sources that we have and my sense is Taylor Hall has a pretty specific way/vision of how he sees he needs to play, and maybe how the team needs to play. And he isn't really open to the idea of change. And that's a problem."
Host indicates he doesn't think it's such a bad thing that Craig MacTavish will be going behind the bench for awhile:
"I don't either and Craig MacTavish has to see first-hand that what I've said is true. If you're moving out a franchise player, potentially, like Taylor Hall is, you'd better be damn certain that that's the right move for the organization. Because he is an elite talent. If you're moving out Jordan Eberle, someone like that - again, from that inner-core that you paid dearly, obviously too early - then you have to be certain.
"But I don't think Craig MacTavish is going to spend a lot of time down there. He can't afford to! He can't afford to. He needs to smooth the transition for Todd Nelson, get out of the way, and then get back to what he needs to do - and that's improve the roster."
Also:
"This is the first of many changes I see coming in Edmonton. I mean the firing of Dallas Eakins. Organizationally, there's going to be a lot more change coming here in the near future. That scouting department is going to implode, I believe. It has to. When you look beyond picking in the Top 10 of the first round and you look at the players that they haven't found in other rounds and things like that, I mean, that comes back to scouting and the fundamentals of a foundation of an NHL organization.
"There's a lot of change to come, but I'll tell you this - and this might surprise a lot - change isn't going to happen at the general manager's level. It's not going to happen at Kevin Lowe's level and it's not going to happen at Bob Nicholson's level. It's going to happen within scouting and maybe some additional assistant coach changes."
Source: TSN 1050/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey
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