Quote:
Originally Posted by TheScorpion
Why in the world do people continually insist upon trying to trade Noah Hanifin? Absolutely puzzling.
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He's a quality top pairing defensemen on a sweetheart deal. It would be awesome to keep him a Flame for the foreseeable future. In a perfect world that would be the ideal thing to do.
However, the only way this team has the cap room to re-sign the big 4 upcoming FAs (Johnny, Chucky, Eatbread, Kylly) is to clear up a ton of cap room. That can only be done via trades or letting FAs walk. If we agree that we want to keep these 4 guys, then difficult decisions inevitably have to be made elsewhere.
Noah's trade value is extremely high right now. Given the cap crunch the team is in, it may make sense to leverage that trade value to clear out bad contracts and move out underperforming players, while also bringing in valuable assets. If not at this deadline, then in the offseason.
Which idea is more "brutal"? Move Hanafin and get a lot of things done at once, setting the team up for success in the coming years? Or letting a number of FAs walk for nothing and still be stuck with Monahan/Lucic contracts on the books?