Taylor Hall Can Sure Draw A Penalty

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs..."

--Rudyard Kipling, "IF"

One of the most famous moment's of Taylor Hall's young career after his first NHL goal and his first career hat trick was a moment late in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on November 8th.  Taylor Hall, frustrated with his play and furious at the officiating, slammed his stick against the boards in disgust.  Tom Renney chose to bench the young winger in response to his outburst.  The reaction in the media was mostly positive - the passion and intensity of youth sometimes means a player is going react with raw and honest emotion. 

The outburst was a one-time thing as Hall demonstrated he could keep his head, and cause others to lose theirs.

In 65 games, Taylor Hall averaged 15.07 minutes of even strength time on ice.  Hall drew 38 penalties and took 9.  His penalties drawn per 60 minutes of ice time of 2.3 ranks second in the league this season and 20th in the NHL since 2007.  Over the last four seasons a player has averaged 2 penalties drawn per sixty minutes 54 times.  His penalties drawn / penalties taken ratio differential of 1.7 ranks 14th in the NHL since 2007.  As Desjardins has shown - drawing penalties is a special talent and Dustin Brown and Patrick Kaleta are especially adept at doing so.  On a team with an average power play, a penalty drawn is worth .2 goals, so Hall's raw differential of 27 should be worth about 5.4 goals, or nearly a full win.  It's only his first season and only 65 games, but if Hall has the capability of drawing penalties at a ratio similar to his 2010-2011 ratio, he's going to be worth more to the Oilers than previously assumed.

Below is a list of all players over the last four years to draw two or more penalties per 60 minutes, sorted by penalties differential.

*All data courtesy of the excellent Behindthenet.ca