The trade market in the NHL is not just something that can influence the season for a pair of teams who are looking to strike a deal, it can also impact player value when there is either a shortage or a surplus of a certain asset available.
A week ago, we saw Erik Karlsson finally moved from San Jose to Pittsburgh, with Jeff Petry shifting from Pittsburgh to Montreal as a part of a 3-way deal involving 9 players. Now, with the top defenseman available on the trade market having been traded, the next best defenseman on the market might very well be Noah Hanifin - and according to some, his value may have just shot up.
We know that Hanifin wants out of Calgary, and thanks to a report from Elliotte Friedman in the middle of July, we know that Hanifin might prefer to play in a US-based market rather than remaining in Canada beyond the final year of his current contract, which expires next summer. Hanifin is a high-end defenseman and, as such, the Flames are likely receiving a lot of calls - especially after the Karlsson trade. The other teams who were in on Karlsson, namely Carolina, Seattle and Toronto, will likely have put in a call to the Flames already, but there could be and likely are a lot more suitors in this one than there were in the race for Karlsson, just based on the short term of the deal and Hanifin's cap hit being just $4.95M as opposed to Karlsson, who carried an $11.5M cap hit before being acquired by the Pens with minimal retention from the Sharks (13%).
With Hanifin not wanting to play in Canada, some may rule Toronto out immediately, but with the Brad Treliving connection there, and with the Leafs being a contending team, we really can't be sure that Hanifin would have included Toronto on his 8-team no-trade list. There's also the fact that Toronto is close to both the Michigan and New York borders to consider as well.
The Athletic's Julian McKenzie also linked Hanifin to two division rivals in Buffalo and Detroit, as either team could easily fit Hanifin in at full pop under their salary cap. He also listed the Nashville Predators as a potential fit.
We haven't heard a whole lot about Hanifin in recent weeks, so if there is a deal in the works with another club, it's been kept very quiet as the two sides work to hammer out a deal. This one doesn't seem nearly as complicated as the Karlsson deal on the surface, but trades are seldom easy and if Hanifin's value has indeed shot up, due to a lack of high-level options out there, we could see this one drag out even longer and possibly into the season. Of course, the Flames will likely get more if they deal Hanifin in the summer, as opposed to at the deadline when they're a little more desperate, but that's a conversation for another time.
