Quote:
Originally Posted by schteve_d
I hope I'm not falling into the same trap that I did with Sam Bennett where, every year, I thought that the next year was the year he was going to put it all together.
I still think Hanifin is going to be elite in this league.
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One advantage that Hanifin has is that he's getting more time with Sutter coaching him.
He is a bit like Bennett where there likely is not an elite player there, but there's a guy who can contribute a lot more. Hanifin was more of of high floor type who was going to settle into being a guy who has a long career as a regular player. But he is coming out of that under Sutter to be a more assertive player.
I would like to give it another year to see what else Sutter can coax out of him. I think he has taken a couple big steps getting from a #4 type up to a 2/3 guy. He didn't have the greatest playoffs, but I think that's where Sutter and the staff can work on preparing him to be better the next time around. 25 year old defenceman with over 500 games played are pretty rare.