Blackhawks' Taylor Hall feels healthy, fresh and confident he can be 'difference-maker'

There are good reasons to be skeptical about the impact forward Taylor Hall will have on the Blackhawks in 2024-25. He’ll turn 33 in November and had only four points in 10 games last season before undergoing ACL surgery.

But Hall does not share that skepticism — and he has good reasons, too.

"I’m really confident I’ll be a solid contributor for the Blackhawks this year," Hall said. "What makes me say that is the hockey I’ve played and the preparation I’ve done this summer. When I get on the ice with some really good NHL players here in Ontario, I know I can be a difference-maker for our team.

"As you get older, you do get better at preparing, and you know your body better. I feel like that year off allowed me to be more mentally fresh, and hopefully I can use that this coming season. Not a lot of players get three-quarters of a year off after playing 14 seasons, so I intend to come back hungry."

Here’s why Hall feels so confident about this coming season:

Smooth recovery

A series of injuries during the first couple of months last season, with the most notable setback occurring in early November in Tampa, destabilized Hall’s ACL in his right knee enough to prompt him to have surgery around Thanksgiving.

He resumed skating about three months after the operation, in late February. He reached the stage where he could participate in light, non-contact drills with the Hawks just in time for their last morning skate of the season April 18.

At that time, he expected to receive his full clearance from his Minnesota-based surgeon — signifying the end of his rehab process — in late May, around the six-month mark. But he later learned he’ll officially receive that in September at the start of training camp.

"My full clearance will come when I get back to Chicago and I’m able to show [the Hawks] that I handle contact, which won’t be a problem — I’ve been introducing that slowly this summer," Hall said. "It’s more of a contact thing, and they want to do that in a controlled setting. It’s hard to do that when they don’t have eyes on me every day."

Despite that technicality, he expects to be ready and available for the first preseason game Sept. 25 against the Red Wings.

Plus, considering most players take a month or so off after the season to heal their inevitable array of bruises and pains, and Hall unofficially finished his recovery a month after the season, his summer has felt like a typical summer. He has worked out and skated with the usual frequency.

"I’m trying to take some rest breaks here and there because I’ve been working out and rehabbing for eight months now," he added. "You want to plateau — you want to be at your best — when training camp starts, and you don’t want to be fatigued from working out all summer. I’m playing around with that. But, in general, it feels like a normal offseason for me."

Later this month, he’ll travel to Vail, Colorado, for a relatively intense player-organized camp at high altitude. Nonetheless, he already has spent plenty of time training with NHL peers this summer near his house on Lake Muskoka, Ontario.

John Tavares, Adam Henrique, Brandon Montour, Dylan Cozens, Erik Gudbranson and Sam Gagner are some of the players who’ve cycled through the local group.

"It’s one thing to skate by yourself and feel good when you’re rehabbing, but it’s another thing to get into some small drills and one-and-one situations and show yourself that everything is feeling pretty good," Hall said.

He hasn’t taken full contact yet — that wouldn’t typically happen during summer scrimmages anyway — but he has taken some contact and pressure and “been in the corners with guys here and there.”

Improved shooting

During his rehab process — especially earlier on, during the winter and spring — Hall’s skating ability, particularly in terms of cutting and using his edges, was restricted.

He could, however, practice shooting as much as he wanted — that wasn’t limited by his recovering ACL. So that’s what he did.

"When you’re catching a pass and shooting or you’re just shooting in general, it’s a really good way to get your mind to stop thinking about your knee," he said. "You just play, and you’re reactive and instinctive. I’ve shot more pucks in the last six months than I had in the last few years, and that’s going to be a focus of mine — as we start the season — to put that into place."

One notable change he made involved reducing his stick flex from 95 to 90, making it slightly more “whippy,” as players describe it. In more technical terms, it will now take him five fewer pounds of force to bend his stick one inch.

After making that switch, he focused on changing the angle of his stick more quickly and deceptively when shooting, as well as shooting from different hand and stick locations around his body. Those are skills that have received more attention in recent years because of revolutions introduced by Auston Matthews — who coincidentally just inherited the Maple Leafs’ captaincy from Tavares, Hall’s summer training-mate.

"I would love to score a few more goals this year than in the past," Hall said. "I’m usually good for 20 every year, but to get up near 30, that would be a lot of fun for me at this age. That’s a little bit of a goal of mine — to not only shoot the puck more but [also] to get in better spots where I’m taking one-timers more, shooting off the pass more and just adding that back into my game."

Playing alongside Connor Bedard, which Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson envisioned Hall doing when he acquired him from the Bruins last summer, would certainly help Hall’s chances of reaching that target.

All parties would love seeing Hall’s production more closely resemble his 2021-22 stats (20 goals, 41 assists in 81 games) than his 2022-23 stats (16 goals, 20 assists in 61 games) in Boston.

Although Philipp Kurashev’s progression and the arrivals of Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi have made Hall’s path to playing with Bedard murkier than it appeared last year, he was elated by the Hawks’ summer moves. He texted Davidson in July to express his excitement, and he’s still feeling it.

"If you look at our back end, when we’re healthy, that’s a . . . playoff-type D-core," Hall said. "It’s going to be up to us, as forwards, to supplement them and support them as much as possible."