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Re: Subban, there have been persistent rumours of lack of team chemistry, issues between PK and the coach, etc. Weber is still a very good defenceman, probably the best available substitute and although his contract is long the cap hits are quite manageable. He will bring a different attitude and style of play and Montreal seems to need that right now.

Re: Hall for Larsson, Hall didn't make the 2014 Olympic team, and he's not on Canada's World Cup roster for this September. So the Team Canada management doesn't even rate him as one of the 13 best Canadian forwards age 23 and up, never mind adding in any European or American forwards nor any Canadian forward under the age of 23.

Hall is a very good scorer but turns over the puck a lot and isn't very good defensively. He's probably not considered one of the top 25 forwards in the NHL so why would people think that he'd fetch a top 25 defenceman? Larsson is a young guy who really took a step forward last season, just his second full year in the league and already was playing on New Jersey's top pairing, which admittedly isn't a great feat but the Devils' D was certainly not as horrible as the Oilers'. Edmonton was the motivated buyer in this case so NJ figured to get a bit the best of it from a pure "value" standpoint but the Oilers' D is so leaky that they have to do something about it if they want to finally make the playoffs after a 10-year absence.

Also, a lot of the chatter these days is based purely on analytics and those who think that the data crunchers know everything are in for some surprises along the way, especially with relatively inexperienced D-men such as Larsson.