Quote:
Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent
I think it's possible Noah meant well but was also careless and didn't consider this from a Flames/leverage perspective when he let his desire to land in Tampa become known and leaked through the agent/whoever.
This is a situation where you just say, I'll get the plane ticket to wherever the gm has to send me that's within my limited no trade and we'll set our sights on Tampa on July 1.
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I think it was pretty deliberate; he wanted an 8 year deal, and he wanted to go to Tampa. The only way to achieve that was to either get there at the deadline, or hope for a sign and trade from whatever team he ended up with, before July 1st, which Tampa I'm sure didn't want to have to pay for.
Tampa knows he wants to come there (his agent has already worked out the extension), so I don't think it's a stretch that his agent colluded with the lightning to force Calgary's hand. Hanifin's agent leaks that he wants to go to Tampa, then starts telling other interested teams that he won't sign, while the Lighting offer juuuuust enough to edge out other offers based on Hanifin's rental value.
It seems like Vegas maybe decided at the last minute to up their offer to edge out Tampa.