Yeah, nope. This is a bad hockey trade. Hanifin might become as good as Hamilton, and if he does, the Flames might come out ahead on this. Depends on Fox.
That said I wouldn't compare it to the Phaneuf trade on either side. Hamilton isn't going to turn into a pumpkin like Phaneuf did - he's going to be a top pairing guy for years. And the other way, the guys the Flames got aren't junk, they're already good players with serious upside.
It's just a lot of upside risk with a lot of downside associated with it... you either lose the trade huge if Hanifin and Lindholm are more or less what they are, or you win it by a bit if they become something like what their ceiling looks like at this point (Lindholm a solid 2nd liner, Hanifin a solid #2 D). So yeah, bad trade, and then throwing Fox into the mix, who is a guy who might end up being pretty much on par with Hanifin... yikes. Scary possibilities. Give Brad credit, he's brave.
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