Taylor Hall

His father was a former Canadian Football League (CFL) player for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Argonauts and Ottawa Rough Riders in the mid-1980s, after which he was a member of the Canadian national bobsleigh team.

His mother introduced him to organized hockey at age five while his father maintained a backyard rink every winter which Hall and his friends practiced on relentlessly.

Taylor Hall (born November 14, 1991) is a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Hall captured a Bantam AAA Calgary city championship with the North East Canucks during the 2004–05 season.

His family moved to Kingston, Ontario, in 2005, where he attended high school at Frontenac Secondary School and later attended St. Anne's Catholic High School in Tecumseh, Ontario while with the Windsor Spitfires.

Hall started playing minor hockey in Calgary, Alberta.

When he was 13, his family moved to Kingston, Ontario, where he continued to play.

For the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons, Hall played Bantam and Minor Midget hockey for the Greater Kingston Predators of the ODMHA league.

He was named to the ODMHA Midget AAA All-Star team.

After the season, Hall was the second overall choice in the 2007 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection by the Windsor Spitfires.

Hall made his OHL debut in 2007–08, scoring a team-high 45 goals and adding 39 assists for 84 points, which was third in team scoring.

In March, he was named OHL Player of the Week twice (March 3 and March 10).

He was named OHL and CHL Rookie of the Year after the season.

During the 2008–09 season, Hall was selected to represent the OHL in the ADT Canada-Russia Challenge.

He scored 38 goals and added 52 assists to finish with 90 points.

Windsor had a successful season on the ice, capturing the OHL Championship as well as the Memorial Cup.

During the OHL playoffs, Hall scored 16 goals and added 20 assists while being awarded the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award as Playoff MVP.

He scored the game-winning overtime goal in the fifth and deciding game of the OHL Finals against the Brampton Battalion to clinch the title.

Hall was also featured in a July 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated, profiling young athletes poised to star in their sports.

Hall had a highly successful junior career, helping the Ontario Hockey League (OHL)'s Windsor Spitfires to two consecutive Memorial Cup championships in 2009 and 2010.

He won the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player of the Memorial Cup tournament both years.

Hall has been named to the NHL All-Star Game on five occasions.

In his second season with the Devils, Hall won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, becoming the first Devils player in franchise history to win the award.

Hall was born in Calgary, the only child of Steve Hall and Kim Strba.

At the 2009 Memorial Cup, Hall recorded eight points in six games as the Spitfires defeated the Kelowna Rockets 4–1 in the final.

After the tournament, Hall was awarded the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the tournament's most valuable player and was named to the tournament all-star team alongside teammate Ryan Ellis.

Though the odds of him playing in Russia were remote, Hall was drafted 89th overall by the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)'s Ak Bars Kazan on June 1, 2009.

He was one of three Canadian junior players (all from the OHL) taken in the 2009 KHL Draft, which begins selecting players one year younger than the NHL does.

Hall finished the 2009–10 season tied for first place in the OHL with Tyler Seguin with 106 points (40 goals and 66 assists) to win the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy alongside Seguin.

Hall was ranked as the top North American-based prospect by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau (CSB) in its 2009–10 midterm rankings.

In the CSB's final rankings, he was overtaken by Tyler Seguin as the top-ranked North American-based prospect.

Hall has cited Toronto Maple Leafs forward and 2009 NHL Entry Draft first overall pick John Tavares as a role model, both on and off the ice.

He was the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft selected by the Edmonton Oilers.

He has previously played for the Oilers, New Jersey Devils, Arizona Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins.

Hall was an early favourite to be the top pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft since entering the junior ranks.

He was praised early in his junior career on Hockey Night in Canada by commentator Don Cherry during his "Coach's Corner" segment.

Hall was instrumental in the Spitfires' 2010 J. Ross Robertson Cup championship, recording a playoff-leading 35 points in 19 playoff games.

His teammate, Adam Henrique, won the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award, scoring 20 goals.

In May 2010, Hall helped lead the Spitfires to their second-straight Memorial Cup.

With the victory, Hall was awarded his second-straight Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP (the first player in its history to repeat as a winner), the Ed Chynoweth Trophy as Memorial Cup scoring leader and a spot on the tournament all-star team for the second-straight year.