Yesterday, GMRF sent Hainsey to the Penguins for a 2017 second round pick and Danny Kristo. The trade doesn’t surprise me at all—especially given that Rutherford is the GM in Pittsburgh (ex-Canes GM). As Rutherford noted, "I'm familiar with him because I signed him in Carolina. He's a real character guy. He's a good penalty killer."
This deal shouldn’t shock anyone—I saw some interesting charts noting Hainsey’s play as of late. I wrote early in February that it appeared he was disengaged, declining in play and needed to be traded. I had a feeling that he would be one of the first pieces the Canes would move. Here are four of the most interesting statistics that I saw floating around on Twitter yesterday:
Overall, I think he knew change was coming and GMRF knew that it needed to begin with him. It definitely helps that the Penguins lost another D on Tuesday night against the Canes too. The trade was a win for both sides and is consistent with GMRF's philosophy regarding the team too. During the game on February 17th, GMRF commented on the trade deadline and said,
“We’ll maintain our philosophy of building this thing right for the long term. We’re not going to give up a good young piece for something that will help us for two months and set us back. If a deal makes us better now and moving forward, we’re all in.”
I see this as a win for the Penguins obviously because they are decimated on D. For the Canes, the timing is right and the return is solid. It also is important because what will make the Canes better in the future is to continue to develop Hanifin and potentially give Fleury/McKeown a call-up.
As a result, the current D pairings are Hanifin—Pesce, Slavin—Faulk and Murphy—Dahlbeck. Unless the Canes pick up another D who fits the expansion rules, I imagine they will extend Dahlbeck or Tennyson through 2018-19 and leave either of them exposed to meet the requirements. Tennyson still needs to play eight games to meet the requirements, so currently Dahlbeck is more likely.
The thing that I am most interested in for tonight’s game is to see how Hanifin looks with a legitimate top-4 partner. Many (including myself) have discussed that his play hasn’t been up to the level that many hoped to see this season. There are some that have indicated they think he will be a bust, however, I still think he has a good future in the NHL.
While I have been disappointed with his awareness around the net and the fact that he gets very “puck focused” at times, I think some of his errors could have been bailed out with a stronger partner. Many need to keep in mind that he is still extremely young, he dealt with a revolving door for his partner and he has been paired with depth D, as opposed to a solid NHL caliber D.
Coach Peters indicated around a month ago that Hanifin would see more time during the second half of the season. At first, his minutes actually began to go down instead of going up. Now that the Canes are sellers and the playoffs are an after-thought, the focus needs to be on developing him as much as possible for next season. I imagine that he will get top 4 D minutes the remainder of the season.
Another exciting announcement that occurred yesterday was that Bickell was assigned to Charlotte. He cleared waivers today which isn’t much of a surprise. He is expected to spend around two-weeks down there from what I’ve read. He should get some good ice time and I am excited to see how he looks. All in all, I think everyone is happy for him to be back on the ice—Congrats Bickell!
Puck drop is at 7:30 against the Senators tonight. It is #HockeyIsForEveryone night at the PNC Arena. The game is on FSCR, RDS and WPCW. Go Canes!
Anticipated Lines Tonight:
Aho—Rask—Lindholm
McGinn—Staal—Di Giuseppe
Skinner—Teravainen—Stempniak
Nordstrom—McClement—Stalberg
Slavin—Faulk
Hanifin—Pesce
Dalhbeck—Murphy
Lack (Confirmed)
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