Calgary Flames sign Noah Hanifin to six-year contract

The Calgary Flames have finally signed newly acquired defenceman Noah Hanifin to a six-year contract.

Well, it’s finally happened! After months of waiting for one of the biggest anticipated RFA signings, the Calgary Flames have finally signed Noah Hanifin to a six-year contract. Originally drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes at the fifth overall pick in 2015, Hanifin was brought to Calgary in the trade that sent Dougie Hamilton, Micheal Ferland, and prospect Adam Fox to the Hurricanes, which also brought Elias Lindholm here as well.

Lindholm was signed quite early on after the trade happened on June 23rd. Lindholm was signed about three weeks later, also to a six-year contract, with an AAV of $4.85 million.

Hanifin will be getting an AAV of $4.95 million for the six years. According to CapFriendly, the 5th and 6th season will include a limited NTC in which Hanifin can submit an eight-team no trade list. Many people were anticipating either a sub $4 million if this was going to be somewhat of a bridge deal. But if it was long-term, it was anticipated that it was going to be somewhere around the $4-$5 million range.

With this signing, according to CapFriendly, the Flames now have $2,588,290 available in cap space and have no remaining players left to sign. Them buying out Troy Brouwer really helped their cap situation for the next two seasons, but it could be a slight downfall for the two seasons after.

Last season, Hanifin had 10 goals and 22 assists with the Hurricanes which led their blueliners in goals and points.

This season, it’s anticipated that Hanifin will start on the second pairing with Travis Hamonic since the Flames would like to try Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie together again. If all goes well, the Flames will have a solid top-four on the blue-line. But at the same time, everyone was saying this last season as well and we didn’t quite see that happening.

I’m keeping my hopes high, though!