<p>Two days ahead of the NHL Draft and less than a week before free agency, the Boston Bruins have just cleared a significant amount of cap space. <a href="https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1673402766612365312?s=20">As first reported by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli</a>, the Bruins have traded left winger Taylor Hall to the Chicago Blackhawks. The full trade, as later confirmed by Seravalli: Hall and the rights to UFA forward Nick Foligno for the rights to RFA defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula. No salary was retained, meaning all $6 million of Hall’s cap hit goes to Chicago.</p>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Full trade, per sources:</p>
<p>To <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NHLBruins?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NHLBruins</a>: Rights to RFAs Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula.</p>
<p>To <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blackhawks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Blackhawks</a>: Taylor Hall, rights to UFA Nick Foligno.</p>
<p>No salary retained by Boston, this represents a pure salary dump to clear $6 million off Bruins’ books.</p><div class="injected-ad injected-video" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="0" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="131"></div>
<p>— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) <a href="https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1673407097390657549?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
<p> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>



<p>Hall, 31, had been a member of the Boston Bruins since they acquired him in April 2021 leading up to the trade deadline. He was a pending UFA rental at the time but signed a four-year, $24 million contract to stay with the Bruins. He had eight goals and 14 points in 16 games after coming over in 2020-21 and delivered a strong first full season as a Bruin in 2021-22 with 20 goals and 61 points in 81 games, but he regressed this season, tallying just 16 goals and 36 points, limited to 61 games because of a lower-body injury. With Pavel Zacha forging such strong chemistry on Boston’s second line with David Krejci and David Pastrnak, Hall was mostly relegated to third-line duty on the left wing.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="1" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="138"></div>



<p>In moving his $6 million cap hit, the Bruins give themselves some crucial breathing room. They were squeezed against the cap because the performance bonus overages for Krejci and Patrice Bergeron dinged them for $4.5 million worth of 2023-24 cap space. It remains to be seen whether Boston, <a href="https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/1673407583510491138?s=20">which now has close to $11 million in cap space</a>, will attempt to re-sign left winger Tyler Bertuzzi or defenseman Dmitry Orlov. Both came over as 2023 Trade Deadline rentals and were highly effective.</p>



<p>The Blackhawks, meanwhile, get two more seasons worth of Hall, who can now be expected to get a look in a first-line role alongside generational prospect Connor Bedard, who will be the No. 1 pick in Wednesday’s NHL Draft. Hall makes sense a mentor given he was the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. Hall had a 16-team no trade list but the Blackhawks were not on it, <a href="https://twitter.com/reporterchris/status/1673406552139603968?s=20">reports Chris Johnston</a> of NorthStar Bets.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="2" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="158"></div>
