Every National Hockey League team has a veteran or two who don’t get a ton of fanfare, but are quietly hugely important to making that team tick. The best teams have a bunch of them.

Since arriving from the Flames as a waiver claim just prior to the 2024 trade deadline, defenceman Joel Hanley has become one of those quietly indispensable guys that do a lot without much ballyhoo.

Man, Hanley has had such a weird career.

He played four years at the University of Massachusetts, where he was a reliable defender but an unspectacular offensive contributor. He played the 2014-15 season on an American Hockey League deal with the Portland Pirates, which meant he was briefly bumped down to the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators for a spell.

His AHL play impressed enough that he landed an entry-level deal with the Montreal Canadiens, and from 2015-16 until present day he’s plied his trade on a series of one and two-year deals. His first one-way deal was signed when he was 30, for goodness sake; the guy has made his way in pro hockey honestly, by working hard and being a reliable teammate that’s adapted to different circumstances. After stints with Montreal, Arizona and Dallas, he was claimed off waivers by the Flames in 2023-24 – as the Flames were navigating the departures of oodles of established defenders and needed guys like Hanley and Brayden Pachal to step in.

In 2024-25, Hanley got a chance at playing regular top-six minutes due to circumstances, and he formed a really strong pairing with MacKenzie Weegar. He even set an offensive high-mark for himself in the NHL… at nine points. That was enough to earn him a two year deal with a $1.75 million cap hit.

As seemingly everyone in a red jersey did, Hanley took a bit of a step back in 2025-26. That’s not to say he was bad by any means – he played 68 games, second among all Flames defenders, and had seven assists and was minus-5 on a team that didn’t score very much at even strength.

It’s just that Weegar struggled a bit with Hanley early in the season, which led to Hanley sliding back down the rotation and spending much of the remainder of the year on the third pairing. That said, he was a pretty good third pairing defender. He didn’t bleed goals against or too many chances against, and his gig was to play simple, predictable hockey and not get into any trouble. He did that. His season ended prematurely due to an injury in late March.

Late in the season, Zayne Parekh really seemed to find his footing after the Olympic break on a pairing with Hanley, and Parekh was quick to shout out Hanley’s positive influence on him during his late-season scrums with local media. “Nacho,” as teammates call him, is someone who’s earned respect from his teammates and coaches for playing a simple, honest brand of hockey and doing what he can to help the team.

Hanley’s not the world’s greatest player by any means, but he’s a really good low-cost, low-risk veteran depth piece.

Hanley turns 35 in June and he’s heading into the final year of his current contract. The Flames will likely have a young defensive group once again, and he’s someone that probably won’t play every game – we’d be shocked if he dressed for anywhere close to 68 games – but he’ll undoubtedly give the Flames whatever he has left in the tank.

Plenty of players in the Flames system have more skill than Hanley, but it’s hard to pass any judgment on his grit, determination or character. He’s a respected veteran NHLer, and he’s earned that respect based on how he’s played the game over the past decade.