Hanifin - Lindholm comp trade

Équipe: 2023-24 Blues de St-Louis

Date de création initiale: 31 mai 2023

Publié: 31 mai 2023

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Calgary Trade
Hanifin is probably a bit worse of a two-way player than Lindholm, but regardless, really good defenseman.

Trade for Lindholm: Pick #22 (Much weaker draft) + 2nd next year + 2nd year following + John Moore + Urho Vaakainen for Hampus Lindholm 50% retained + Kody Curran (insignificant AHL defenseman)

Justification of omission of 2nd 2 years out. Retention on Scandella + No retention on Hanifin + Vaakanainen although younger, had track record of poor results. Could see later round pick added from STL (4th or 5th) evening it out.

Pros for STL: Adds possible top pair LHD truly lacking. Perunovich is pretty blocked while Krug seems to be immovable. Can fit Hanifin under current cap construction and will have a bit more flexibility in 2025 assuming cap does increase as projected.
Cons for STL: leaves virtually no wiggle room for cap space next year and makes cap structure a bit harder to retain impending UFAs. High cost to pay for a guy with one season remaining. Hanifin may not be a perfect fit if they intend to use Parayko pairing in the same brutal deployment. Giving up on Perunovich before he's had a fully healthy season to show what he's capable of. ALOT of money tied up on defense assuming plan is to extend Hanifin.

Pros for Calgary: Gives cap wiggle room. Gives a very good futures package. Scandella at 1.125m is very movable for a mid round pick.

Cons for Calgary: Taking some salary back in the offseason. Perunovich, while being extremely skilled with the puck has a large resume of injury issues. Loss of good roster player.


Left 4C for Blues open as there are alot of options here with limited cap space. Good chance they sign a cheap vet and see if Dean can't push for the 4C spot. If not also a good chance Alexandrov is slotted in there and Buchnevich is pushed to center. Options for guy like Bolduc to make a push for a roster spot out of camp as well. Neighbors or Alexandrov could also push for a 3rd line role.

Extension for Hanifin Assuming similar to Lindholm or a tick higher is very manageable even if due to TV rights deals like Bally falling through the cap stays stagnant. Cap hit (with scandella retention) slotted to his position is 5.95m. Cant see Hanifin demanding more than 7m long-term going forward. Still no alpha on defense. But these parts fit alot better and allow for Leddy/Krug to be rotated 2nd/3rd pairing dependent on what the team is needing.

Just wanting to try to weigh the potential pros and cons and discuss.