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LeBrun: Offers to Calgary Flames for Noah Hanifin not ‘close to what they believe is fair value’
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Photo credit: © Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Pike
Jun 29, 2023, 21:05 EDT
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Over the past few days, the 2023 NHL Draft came and went. And while a few trades were made league-wide, the Calgary Flames were quiet aside from the six picks they made. That’s raised a few eyebrows, considering the Flames have six pending 2024 unrestricted free agents to figure out.
One likely reason for no trades? Per The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun: the Flames haven’t gotten any good offers for Noah Hanifin.
Here’s a brief LeBrun snippet:
Several teams, including Florida and Boston, have shown interest in Noah Hanifin, but the Flames have not been presented with anything close to what they believe is fair value. My understanding of the situation, as of Thursday, is that first-time GM Craig Conroy has let teams know he’s not going to sell low on Hanifin — he will be patient and wants to see a proper trade play out. If that acceptable trade doesn’t pan out this summer, then so be it. The Flames are prepared to have Hanifin come back to training camp still part of the team.
LeBrun emphasized that Flames GM Craig Conroy intends to be patient, which is something we’ve heard from folks like Elliotte Friedman and Pat Steinberg from Sportsnet… and something Conroy told the assembled media on the draft floor in Nashville on Thursday. “I don’t want to rush anything. I don’t want to make a deal here or do something just to do it. That doesn’t make any sense.”
The Flames’ intention is to maximize their pending 2024 UFAs from an asset management perspective. Some they would prefer to keep long-term. Others they may prefer to go shorter with – probably the ones that are older than 30. On Thursday, Conroy specifically mentioned that the team is still speaking with Elias Lindholm and Mikael Backlund’s camps.
Tyler Toffoli’s trade on Tuesday was the first domino to topple regarding the 2024 UFA class. It could take longer for others to topple. The 2023 free agent class is really shallow, particularly for blueliners, and LeBrun surmises in his column that perhaps teams that strike out on a big name such as Dmitri Orlov may circle back to the Flames with a bigger offer for Hanifin.
In the meantime: patience.
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