Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
Hanifin played the most even strength time on ice under Sutter. He averaged 19:30 compared to the 18:45 of Tanev, and the 18:10 of Giordano between March 5 (Sutter's hiring) and April 23 (Hanifin going down to injury the next game). In the most important game of the season against Montreal he played 24 minutes.
He averaged 22 minutes a night under Sutter, more than he did previously. I don't think your belief matches actuality. I mean, Sutter saying that Hanifin is the type of player you don't replace and then advocating to move him due to the expansion draft because of what Sutter said, doesn't make sense.
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I’m not saying Sutter doesn’t like Hanifin, clearly he liked him because he didn’t scratch him once like he seemed to do with a lot of the other young defensemen. All I’m saying is that Darryl seems to like Gio more than Hanifin based on the evidence. If Darryl could, I’m sure he’d keep the top 4 the same, but the expansion situation creates a problem here and if it comes down to Seattle trying to extort the Flames, then it may be more prudent to make a trade externally.
But in the end, like I said earlier. I believe the Flames will ultimately just send a couple of picks to protect the top 4 D. But what I’m also saying is that I won’t be shocked if the scenario I’m thinking arises either as no coach likes losing their top defenseman.