NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman on NHL Tonight on Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin and his preferred destination.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
EJ Hradek: “Elliotte, let me ask you about Vegas and Tampa because they’re both teams, teams that have won the Stanley Cup in recent times. Of course Vegas won it last year. They have some space, LTIR wise. I would imagine with (Mikhail) Sergachev in Tampa and Stone in Vegas.
So what are you hearing in terms of those two teams? I figure it’s gonna be really hard for Tampa just because they don’t have anything to trade really having moved a lot of picks over the last several years. What are you hearing in those two spots?
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Friedman: “Well, first of all in Tampa, I, there, there definitely is a feeling that that is Noah Hanifin is preferred destination is Tampa Bay. And as you said with Sergachev being out for a long time, they have the ability to do it.
But you hit on the big problem there. I keep looking at it and I keep saying, you know, what’s the trade here? If you look at the deals that Calgary has already made with Tanev with, with Lindholm with, for example, Tyler Toffoli back in the summer. There has been at least a prospect that they really liked or a good young player who’s come back in those situations.
And I look up and down the Tampa roster and they’ve got a really good young prospect. Their first-rounder, the beautifully dressed Isaac Howard but other than that, I don’t know what Tampa Bay has that would interest Calgary. They don’t have much draft capital. So I think if that was a trade that couldn’t be made, it probably would be done already.
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I think the Flames and Hanifin are a bit in a bit of a standoff and I think it’s gonna come down to, (a) is there a wider group of teams that he’s willing to talk to? Is Calgary willing to allow him to discuss an extension or do the Flames simply say, ‘Look, we’re just going to take the best deal and you can sort it out in the summer.’ And we’ve got a few days still to figure that out.