Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
He makes 5 million a year, has higher trade value than his on ice performance reflects, and plays the same position as each of Valimaki, Giordano, and Kylington, two of whom are younger than him and appear to be just as capable without the cap hit...
|
Kyllington is barely five months younger than Hanifin. It is disingenuous of you to insinuate as though there is an unbridgeable chasm of age between them.
Quote:
|
I like Hanifin, but he is more expendable as a highly paid LD than any of Brodie/Hamonic/Andersson who each bring unique elements to our right defense. I'm not sure Hanifin brings anything unique to our left side other than more experience than the two other kids. Skating? Kylington is better. Size? Valimaki is bigger. Offense? I don't see his as being significantly better than the other two there either. Defense? Hamonic carries that pair in their zone and that pair has still been our achilles heal in a year where we lead the West because Hanifin misplays many sequences...
|
This is wrong on several levels. While Hanifin may not be a better skater than Kyllington, nor bigger than Valimaki he does combine qualities in a single player that surpasses both at this point. It is nonsense for you to suggest that he is not "significantly better than the other two." Andersson and Kyllington draw by far the easiest matchups of all three pairs and frequently get buried. That's okay; they are rookies. But the beauty of Hanifin is that while he is not a rookie, he combines a massive amount of NHL experience at the same age as a NHL rookie. For a soon-to-be 22-year-old second-pairing defenseman Hanifin looks damn good.