The Calgary Flames are trending towards selling their pending unrestricted free agents, but they still can’t seem to bring themselves to commit to a complete fire sale.
Since last summer, the team has parted ways with Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, and most recently Elias Lindholm. Chris Tanev seems to be the next most likely candidate to be on the block, but with a high asking price for the veteran defender, we will see who balks first.
Of course that leaves the team with one remaining UFA: Noah Hanifin. From what it sounds like, Calgary truly does not want to go down the path of trading the defenceman, leaving the ball completely in Hanifin’s court.
Calgary still wants to retain Hanifin’s services
On The Jeff Marek Show today, Elliotte Friedman highlighted the desire the Flames have to keep Hanifin long-term:
This was also alluded to on Monday’s episode of 32 Thoughts the Podcast, where Friedman noted that the Flames told Hanifin when he was on break to come to a decision.
You can look at this two ways. The first is that the team sees Hanifin as part of the solution long-term and wants him to be a part of their core. Hanifin has been a consistent top-four defenceman in his career, and whether you are going for the playoffs or not, you need players like that in your lineup. Having him around for a long time—even if the price to retain him is a bit higher—could be key for the Flames if they want to rebuild.
The other way you can look at it is the Flames repeating their old mistakes of begging players to stay, especially those who clearly don’t want to be here. If Hanifin has already turned down a long-term extension, watched the team trade away key UFAs, and now is sitting on another extension presented to him, maybe it’s time to accept that he just may not want to play here moving forward.
Hoping for Hanifin to stay a Flame
The team is desperate for an American player to sign with them to fight off the bad vibes Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk left, but going to the extent of giving the player all of the power and practically begging them to stay is a tough look.
Keeping Hanifin around is probably the one move most fans would be okay with, but he would also be the player that nets them the most in any potential trade. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but the team cannot wait around forever for Hanifin to make a decision.
They may need to decide for him.
