There are a lot of trade Hanifin for a top 6 forward proposals. That seems very unlikely to me based on Tre’s past moves. He gets extra defensemen every year at the deadline... Going forward with a top 4 of Gio and Valimaki on the left seems very unlikely. One defender that is likely past his prime and one that is well before his.
So if Hanifin gets traded, a LHD needs to be coming back. So my intuition, not my proposal, is that if Hanifin gets moved its for a different LHD... OEL comes to mind.
Hanifin+Ryan for OEL is the basis of what I think could happen... pluses on one side or the other. OEL only makes 1.5 more than Gio... once Gio is done our next highest paid defenceman will make 4.55... Even if valimaki is amazing he won’t get a contract that high.
Most will hate it for the contract... But OEL scores about 13 goals per 82 game season for the last 5 years.
And for those that are obsessed with the last cup winners and their centres... they’ve also had 29 yo first pairing defenders... Hedman, Pieterangelo and Carlson... All 29! Amazing stat. OEL is 29 right now.
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