The 29-year-old forward can become an unrestricted free agent after this season. He signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Sabres on Oct. 11, 2020.
“We’re open to anything and everything,” Adams said. “My job is to do anything and everything to make this franchise move in the right direction. I have a very good relationship with (Hall’s agent) Darren Ferris and Taylor. Open lines of communication and obviously days are moving forward here, so there will be a lot of conversations around that.”
Hall has scored 16 points (two goals, 14 assists) in 28 games for Buffalo this season, including six points (one goal, five assists) on the power play. Selected by the Edmonton Oilers with the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, Hall won the Hart Trophy voted as the NHL most valuable player in 2017-18, after he scored an NHL career-high 93 points (39 goals, 54 assists) in 76 games with the New Jersey Devils.
Video: BUF@NYI: Hall cleans up rebound past Sorokin
The Sabres, who have lost straight games (0-10-2) and are last in the NHL with a 6-18-4 record, fired Ralph Krueger as coach Wednesday and replaced him with assistant Don Granato. Buffalo has not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011.
“Obviously where we are in the standings lends to the fact I’ll be getting phone calls or have been getting phone calls on players,” Adams said. “Conversations every day. A lot of conversations. Absolutely, this is my job to make sure not only that I’m proactive but listen as well and [am] doing everything I can to move this thing forward.”
Any potential trade will require Hall’s approval because of a no-move clause in his contract. He said this month he had interest in re-signing with the Sabres, but that was before the firing of Krueger, who played a key role in Hall’s decision to sign with Buffalo. Hall and Krueger were together for three seasons with the Oilers, when Krueger was an assistant (2010-11, 2011-12) and coach (2012-13).
“I’m open to anything,” Hall said March 4. “It’s not like I’ve had an amazing statistical year by any means so far this year. So just in saying that, I’ve enjoyed my time here, I’ve really liked the guys, the coaching staff, the way we’re treated as players. And like we said from the start, my agent and myself, we’re open to anything.
“I was never treating this as just a one-year thing. I was always coming into it open-minded. We’ll have to see what happens here, if there’s interest on their side, but, yeah, of course I’m interested.”
Adams said he has had discussions with Ferris since signing Hall, and those discussions have continued.
“We openly in the beginning when [signing Hall] happened … talked about what would we do moving forward and concepts,” Adams said. “So we’ve had open dialogue back then. Darren and I have been in touch recently and we’ve had conversations both ways, so we’ll see where this goes.”
