Noah Hanifin is an interesting player due to his draft position (fifth overall in 2015) and skill set.

He has played a ton since entering the NHL as an 18 year old in 2015 with the Hurricanes. After spending 3 years with the Hurricanes playing behind the likes of Jacob Slavin, Brett Pesce, and Justin Faulk, Hanifin was moved to the Flames in a 5 player deal and was subsequently signed as an RFA to a 6 year, 29.7 million dollar contract.

Hanifin has been a bit of an enigma. Again, drafted 5th overall, he has not quite lived up to expectations but has shown promise and room to develop. He has struggled mightily at times defensively but saw his offensive rates and shot contributions improve greatly in his 3rd year in Carolina putting up a career high 10 goals. His ability to transition the puck has been his greatest strength both in Carolina and Calgary.

In his first season in Calgary, Hanifin played most of his time with Travis Hamonic on the 2nd pairing and the two meshed well together forming a reliable and decent tandem. Hanifin continued his strong offensive play leading the team in many shot rate statistics. Conversely, he struggled away from Hamonic and was extremely poor in shot suppression rates, including an abysmal playoff.

Hopefully at age 22 he still has the ability to develop into a legitimate top 4, possible top pairing defenceman. If he can continue his offensive contributions and improve his defensive game, the Flames could have an elite transition defender as a part of their core group for years to come.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.