Edmonton Oilers’ left winger Taylor Hall cleared to join Oklahoma City Barons after being locked out
Taylor Hall, a professional ice hockey player and a Canadian national, who plays for the Edmonton Oilers in the National Hockey League (NHL), has been locked out officially and cleared to sign for the Oklahoma City Barons’ team like many of his Oilers teammates.
The 21-year-old forward was not free to sign with any other team as he was not locked out because of an injured shoulder and was still getting a pay check, during the time when all of the NHL players were locked out.
The Oklahoma City Barons plays in the American Hockey League (AHL) and are affiliates of Edmonton Oilers, because of which most of the NHL team players were assigned to play for that minor league team.
Though he would be getting $67,500 by Oklahoma City Barons for representing them, which is much less than the $900,000 he was getting from Oilers but he would be happy on the re-union with his friends and team-mates Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle.
He is excited to be in the city and already has taken a flat on rent with Jordan Eberle.
Talking to Edmonton Sun, the Calgary, Alberta native was very happy on joining the new team and said that he knows everybody else is also happy because the facilities, the arena and everything there is good. He is also preparing to start the season and everything
is going well, as he said,
“I know all the guys like it here. The dressing room is good. The arena is good. They say it’s a good environment to play. I’m preparing like I’m going to start my season playing here and I’m good with that.”
The first overall selectee of the 2010 NHL Draft seems to be okay with the fact that they will play for Oklahoma City Barons until they are given tickets by Oilers to return to NHL, as he added,
“Jordan and I have leased a condo here for two months which is a 10-minute walk to the rink. Until they give us plane tickets for Edmonton, we’re here to work hard and play for Oklahoma City.”
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