Quote:
Originally Posted by Crown Royal
What about Hanifin? It's really easy to forget he is even younger than Ras
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I thought Hanifin looked awful for a lot of last year and some big parts of this year. And recently, he looks like what he's supposed to be, a good skating puck-playing defenseman.
But I'm still not sold - the first Dallas goal, Hanifin has the puck behind the goal line, has possession and should just skate it or look for an outlet, instead he hacks it up the boards for an immediate turnover. It was a play that I think a more experienced dman would handle better, and I'm happy to let the guy play and learn. I thought what we were seeing before was a guy who didn't know his role, wasn't comfortable with the system, and was making bad positional choices far too often and getting blown by on fast turnover type situations.
So I think Hanifin has a role here, hopefully it's a big solid one for a long time. But I don't see him (yet) as having anywhere near the game influence or the personality/leadership/panache of a Rasmus Andersson, for example.