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The Boston Bruins have big holes on the left side of their defense.
Torey Krug walked away from the team in free agency, Zdeno Chara has not been brought back, and they’re very thin as a result.
This has led to speculation they could have interest in Calgary Flames LD Noah Hanifin, who happens to be from Boston.
The latest came from TheFourthPeriod. Excerpt below:
The Boston Bruins are believed to have expressed interest in Calgary Flames defenceman Noah Hanifin at some point this off-season, TFP has learned.
...
Calgary is also believed to have interest in Bruins forward Ondrej Kase, who is in the final year of his contract and can become a restricted free agent next off-season.
While TFP didn’t specify if the Bruins are still interested, they remain paper thin on the left side so I’d imagine Hanifin is still on their wishlist.
Hanifin has averaged 29 points per 82 games for his career, is a toolsy player, and is still only 23. I can see why teams might have interest.
I think the Flames would do well to move on, though. He doesn’t produce a ton offensively, his defensive impact is very poor (he has finished with a negative defensive GAR every year in the league), and his decision making is questionable at best. For those reasons, I don’t think he’ll ever realize his potential.
Ondrej Kase is injury prone, which concerns me, but he has long been an extremely efficient 5v5 producer. I think getting more young talent on the wing could be very beneficial, especially if the Flames plan on moving Elias Lindholm to center full-time (thus, taking away from their quality on the wing).
I also think, given what Juuso Valimaki showed in Finland, he might be more ready for top-4 minutes than anyone would have been expected after missing so much time.
With the NHL season tentatively scheduled to start in just over a month, there should be some transactions coming.
We’ll see if a Hanifin trade is among them.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Evolving-Hockey.com
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