Hanifin was largely regarded as the best prospect outside of McDavid and Eichel in the 2015 draft. Arizona and Toronto felt differently and Hanifin slide to 5th overall. Carolina seemed like they had seen enough to package him with Lindholm for Dougie, Ferland, and Fox.
The summer of 2018 I was excited for the new look team and I will admit I saw Hanifin as the main piece returning in that deal with Lindholm as the secondary piece which at least 4 years later is false. Hanifin is soft spoken and not a flashy player so has drawn those Bouwmeester comparisons. He suffered by being paired with Hamonic for the first 2 years he was here. The result was a player who most thought was simply average. That definitely changed when Tanev was brought in and Hanifin started to look like a legit top 4 guy. Last year he moved to the top pair on the left side and both he and Anderson had huge offensive numbers.
Hanifin likely has a long term deal around $8M in his future but with the Flames cap structure I am not sure it will be here. I think Noah is a flame for 1 more year and is moved next summer to create some cap space and avoid losing him for nothing as a UFA.
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