Hanifin is not better than Hamilton defensively. Yet. But it won't take long.
As for Hamilton, the stats guys think he is this great player defensively, but it just isn't true. In fact it isn't even close. He is lazy defensively, he coughs up the puck, he doesn't cover people in front of the net, and he let Giordano do the heavy lifting far too often. And then there were the penalties.
As someone who tends to focus more on the defensemen, watching Hamilton in his own end drove me crazy. All the talent in the world, but just... blah. Frustrating.
Hanifin is not better than Hamilton yet. But I am going to predict right now that the Flames' defense, as a group, will be better than last year. And will exceed the 146 point total from last year as well.
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