A big deal in Calgary
Hanifin, Lindholm reunited with coach Peters in Calgary after Flames ship Hamilton to the Hurricanes
Leave it to Brad Treliving to make the first blockbuster trade at the 2018 National Hockey League draft.
It took him a few days to finalize but the Calgary Flames general manager sent defenceman Dougie Hamilton to the Carolina Hurricanes for Elias Lindholm, a right-shot forward who can play centre or wing, and defenceman Noah Hanifin. Both are former firstround picks and both are restricted free agents.
Also going to Carolina are winger Micheal Ferland and blue-line prospect and
Harvard defenceman Adam Fox.
Lindholm, of course, could be the depth scoring the Flames covet, having scored 16 goals and 28 assists last season, 64 goals and 188 points in his 374 total NHL appearances.
Hanifin, 21, is a left-shot D-man, picked fifth overall in 2015. Last season, he had 10 goals and 22 assists.
The biggest tie, of course, is new Flames head coach Bill Peters, who coached the players with Carolina the past few seasons.
Hamilton, who was acquired by Treliving at the 2015 draft from the Boston Bruins, spent last year on the Flames’ first-pairing with Mark Giordano. The 25-year-old Toronto native scored 17 goals and 27 assists last season over 82 games, after taking a while to adjust to the Flames. This season will be the fourth of a six-year deal for Hamilton worth $5.75-million AAV.
Treliving was asked about the rumours of “shopping Dougie Hamilton” earlier this week, and he said with a laugh:
“No. There’s lots of stuff that’s reported at this time. We don’t comment on that stuff. When I hear about that stuff, it usually comes out late at night when people have been into the red wine.”
“A lot of good memories,” Hamilton said of his three years in Cowtown. “I really enjoyed my time in Calgary. I didn’t really know what to expect moving there at 22 ... I think I’ve grown up a lot as a person the last couple of years in Calgary, and I was, I think, lucky to be able to do that there. I made a lot of friends and friendships with people that I think won’t go away forever or for a long time.”
Although he had known for a while that a trade might be in the works, Hanifin had just settled in to catch a Saturday matinee showing of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
“I only caught about five minutes of it,” said the 21-yearold defenceman from his offseason home in Boston. “My agent called me about 20 minutes before that, so I was pretty distracted.”
And pumped up.
After all, Hanifin grew up playing summer tournaments with Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk when the two were at the U.S. National Team Development Program and knows Johnny Gaudreau from their time at the world championship playing for the U.S. last summer and through college hockey events (the two missed playing with each other with the Boston College Eagles by one year).
But the bottom line is Hanifin can play. The 6-foot-3, 206-pounder brings an elite level of skating to the table.
“Whatever job (Calgary) needs me to do, I’m happy to do it,” Hanifin said. “I’m excited. I’m ready to take my game to the next level. It’ll be an easier transition, going to a new team and having a coach that has coached me for the past few years. I know what to expect, and he knows what to expect from me. I think it’s going to be great.”
Peters sees him slotted in with a careful, stay-at-home defenceman like Travis Hamonic, while T.J. Brodie would move up to play with Giordano on the top pairing.
“Noah is a driven player,” Peters said. “He’s 21 years old and in and around the 240 games-played mark. That’s kind of where you take your next step as a D-man in the National Hockey League. I think he’s going to thrive in this market.”
Hanifin averaged 18:52 in ice time last season, which was fourth among Hurricanes defencemen, and was a minus-20 and has often been seen as a “slow starter” for having been picked so high.
“I know when these guys come in (the league) and they’re going to change the world in their first year or first two years,” Treliving said. “He’s already a good NHL player, and he has an upside. He’s big, he’s mobile, and he moves pucks. He’s competitive.
“When you do the homework on Noah, I love the drive. He wants to put in the work to be a really, really top player. He was ecstatic when I talked to him (Saturday) ... ecstatic to get into Canada.”
Meanwhile Lindholm, 23, has the potential to be the right winger needed to play on the team’s top line with Sean Monahan and Gaudreau. The native of Boden, Sweden, also has the skill set to take some pressure off Monahan to win faceoffs on the right side.
“He was drafted as a centre out of Sweden, and we played him the last 25 games (in Carolina) in the middle, wanting to know if we had a centre going into 2018-19,” Peters said. “I know the answer to the question but I also want to make sure his