It is possible for both things to be true:
- Hanifin likes Calgary and would be interested in signing a long-term extension to stay with the Flames.
- Hanifin doesn't want to sign an extension this year.
He has one more season left on his contract and is coming off a down year compared to 2021-22. If he expects to see a significant improvement under Huska, it's in his best interest to play out his contract. He's only 26 years-old, so he's still at an age where he should expect to improve from one year to the next. Also, the cap is expected to see a significant rise next season after 6 seasons of stagnation, which again makes it in his best interest to wait.
That's a potential challenge for Conroy (maybe not with Hanifin, but likely someone who is a pending UFA next season). It's easy to say you won't go into next season with a bunch of pending UFAs because you don't want a repeat of the Gaudreau and Tkachuk situations, but it can be a lot tougher to stick to those guns if a player says he wants to stay long-term, but also doesn't want to sign this summer because he thinks he has more to prove and wants to earn a better deal a year from now.