If the Sabres were to take the big swing and forfeit one of their top prospects to trade for Hanifin, it wouldn't be just to flip him to another team like Anaheim - especially for an overpriced goalie and aging center. The Sabres would trade for Hanifin to keep him.

Anaheim really doesn’t need to be buying a LHD as we have a whole stable about ready to make the jump

I dont see why the sabres do this at all. I like gibson but his contract is to long. UPL and comrie could be just as good as him this year and although i agree we could use a veteran center to support our youth im not sure we need to trade 5 good pieces for an over paid back up goalie and a rental aging out center to play his off wing and a line up. You can get a rw/c for a better price.

To play him where? I get that Rosen is a top prospect, but realistically hes somewhere between 5-10 for us IMO. I'd have Benson, Savoie, Kulich, and Ostlund all in front of him and thats just forwards. Not everybody can be in Buffalo or stay in Roch forever.

I get not being too excited about Gibson, and if you don't believe he can bounce back to a ~ .910% - .915% type guy with a better team around him then the whole trade is pointless. BUT the reality is we need to clean up our D core a bit, and I'd like to see us move Olofsson for a more defensively responsible forward who only has 1 year left.

I like Clifton as our #4 Dman and I think that Hanifin would demand too high of an AAV on his next deal for us to bring him back as a #3 or #4 with no pp time...

TB says no thanks we have Comrie already making 125k less in Johansson

Trust me when I tell you that Johanson is not as good as comrie

What the easiest way to say F-you to someone? Trust me. TB passes

Love the idea of trading for Hanifin, but the flip to Anaheim for Gibson and Henrique is beyond terrible.

Don't understand the first part I guess, but we can reconvene on the subject after you've watched Johansson play this season

Okay fine, but I need someone to please explain to me where Hanifin is playing and how we are affording the 8x~6 mill AAV contract that he is going to command next offseason.

Like I said before, if you think Gibson simply has nothing left at all then scrap the idea entirely.

But, in my opinion, we need to add a stable presence in the middle 6 on a 1 year deal. I think that Henrique provides that, I don't pay for access to any public analytic models so I'd be very open to being told that I'm incorrect about that. In addition, I think there is a balance somewhere between where teams looking to acquire gibson and the ducks land on his value.

People act like he's a bottom 10 player in the sport to try and convince themselves that he is worth less, and ducks fans will argue that he is closer to prime John Gibson than the current one, but he realistically is somewhere between those two places. in my opinion

Hmm.. I admittedly do not get to watch too much of the Ducks, so I'll have to take your word for it.

I was just looking at the roster that shows only 5 NHL dmen with two of those being closer to fringe AHL guys and assumed there was a need there

Not at that cost

Yes we will probably buy one or tow but not expensive guys

Cheap guys that’ll be like a 5th to add of for FC

Flames would want a pick added or a better prospect.

Olfsson holds very little to no value to us.

I think something around middlestat/krebs for hanifin makes more sense imo since the flames seem dead set on trying to stay competitive

Hanifin for middlestat or krebs one for one at the TDL?

As others have said, this all seems a bit unlikely

If we did bring in a “Henrique” type player,
i think he plays 3C or 4C though
Either Olofsson or Kulich/Savoie/etc take that wing spot imo

Lol
You wouldn’t even get Rosen + Olofsson (at half price) for Hanifin
You guys have been asking for too much- more than anyone will pay obviously, which is why he’s STILL on your roster

If you've listened to Granato and Adams talk in the past about their opinions on the handedness, it should be obvious that they prioritize the right fit in terms of talent, character and ability first and don't really worry about a defenseman playing his natural side vs. opposite side. Granato recently said during development camp that any of their defensemen should be able to play with one of the other 5 defensemen and we've seen that in the past how the 2LHD Dahlin/Samuelsson pairing works.

There have been enough rumblings in the past to suggest the Sabres do have interest in Hanifin, no doubt because of his age, USNTDP history under Granato and ability to play an up-tempo system because of his skating. If they were to try to acquire Hanifin, it would be because they'd see a top 5 group of Dahlin-Power-Hanifin-Samuelsson-Clifton as deeper and more reliable 1-5 than they had before, regardless of how many RHD vs LHD they'd have. The question would be if Jokiharju has to be forfeited in the Hanifin package or not. Erik Johnson has to be assumed as a regular but only for 1 year at the moment. As to pairings, it shouldn't be unexpected if Granato expects any of Power, Hanifin, Clifton, Jokiharju and/or Johnson to play either side at different points of the season. Adams is likely also making sure he keeps space for Ryan Johnson in 1-2 years and even Novikov potentially - which a Hanifin commitment limits.

The bigger obstacle of why they wouldn't go after Hanifin, which you alluded to, is what his next extension will look like. Adams has to be thinking long-term - if Dahlin and Power get extended in the $17-18M combined range on top of the $4M committed to Samuelsson, it's hard to see Adams wanting to give Hanifin also $6-7M and have nearly $30M tied up in 4 defensemen.

I don't want Olofsson at all. Wouldn't take him for free. Rosen isn't anything special. He's like your 5th best prospect. He'd be like 4 for us.


Maybe but you don't know for sure. Trades can take time.

Hanifin has been available for quite a while now
Come on