Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Hanifin is criminally under rated/appreciated around here. Has been since the day the Flames acquired him.
Since he came into the league he is top 40 league wide in GP, pts, assists, etc, while playing on middling teams.
Now he is hitting his prime and so many want to run him out of town instead of making him a cog in this re-tool the club is clearly in the midst of.
Now if he is choosing to test UFA then yeah, they have to deal him. They are losing a really good player though and one that is going to be almost impossible to replace internally and will cost a bundle to replace other ways.
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Hanifin is a bit f a lightning rod player. People see a lot in the player and expect him to leverage those tools to excel. Hanifin doesn't do that. I look at Hanifin and I see Gary Suter. Probably the most underappreciated player from the Flames late 80's juggernaut there was (Colin Patterson a close second). Just played the game really well, but never really appeared to become the sum of his parts. That's Hanifin's problem as well. He has all the tools to be a number one defenseman but never puts them all together consistently to be that player. So I can see why people love and hate him and why the conversation is the way it is.
I agree that Hanifin would be a good fit to retool. Right skill set, right age, might even come in at the right price. At the same time I can see why people would want to see him dealt. He doesn't take his game to the next level, is looking for a salary that maybe he isn't worth (will get better as the cap rises), is a guy that is the wrong nationality, and a guy that might generate a sexy return. I can see the desires of each side here.
It's unfortunate that Poirier got hurt as I think the team would be more comfortable making the commitment one way or the other on Hanifin is they knew what they had in Poirier. I originally saw Poirier as a Kylington replacement but after his performance in the AHL last season I think he could replace Hanifin. I think the team wanted to see proof of that this year and make their decisions based on what players were ready to step up. Poirier's injury handcuffed them.