Flames Nail Down Hanifin

The last piece of the Calgary Flames' summer has now been taken care of, as Thursday night saw the completion of Noah Hanifin's new deal with his new team, both sides agreeing to a 6-year, $29.7 million contract, a $4.95 million per season agreement.

The deal works out to be a year longer, with a slightly cheaper cap hit than expected, which is a win for both sides, and the deal is done with plenty of time remaining before training camp opens in a couple of weeks.

In the 2018 season, the 21-year old defenseman played in 79 games with the Carolina Hurricanes, scoring 10 goals and 32 points on a slightly underwhelming side, which was good enough for 288th overall in hockey pool scoring, 45th among all defensemen.

If you missed it, Hanifin was part of a blockbuster deal this summer, after contract talks had stalled with the Hurricanes and the Flames needed a change in personnel on their side as well.

It will be interesting to see how Hanifin figures into the mix on the Calgary blueline, which has already put a lot of stock into both Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie over the years, while still investing a great deal into both Travis Hamonic and Michael Stone as well.  The Hockey News seems to have big expectations for him, projecting him for 45 points this season, but I don't think I will get too excited, given that he is now on a new team and needs to find his place, another 35-point range season seems reasonable to me.

The Flames only had so much cap space to work with on this deal and if the cap number for the young defenseman was going to be north of $5 million, that was going to leave the team in a tight spot through the year. Adding that extra year did help them save on the average annual value on the deal, which certainly helped and it has now left the team with about $1.8 million in space, with a full 23-man projected roster in tow.