Report: Bruins’ Trade Target Headed To UFA Market

Boston Bruins NHL trade target and Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin reportedly plans to hit the 2024 unrestricted free agent market on July 1.

In his weekly appearance on Sportsnet’s ‘Saturday Headlines’, Sportsnet NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman reported that while neither player nor team had confirmed it yet, all of the intel he gathered pointed towards the 27-year-old Norwood, MA native becoming a UFA next July.

“So every week I say I’m not going to talk about the Flames, Ron. It’s too much. I think it’s too much for the organization and the players to be perfectly honest, but it’s very difficult to avoid it because I think a lot of teams are waiting on Calgary, even though they’ve made two trades already, for the other two or three they could possibly make,” Friedman said.

“Now the team isn’t commenting, the agent isn’t commenting, but it’s pretty clear from just everything we’ve learned today that Noah Hanifin is going to the market and I think there are Canadian teams interested in him, but I think long-term the US teams are more confident that they are going to the ones able to sign him. But it’s very clear to me without any confirmation from the team or agent that Noah Hanifin is going to market and the action has picked up around them.”

The Boston Bruins have been linked to the 6-foot-3, 216-pound defenseman all season. They were also linked to now former Calgary Flames center – and potential 2024 UFA – Elias Lindholm before he was ultimately traded to the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31 in exchange for forward Andrei Kuzmenko, a 2024 first round pick, prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo, as well as a conditional 2024 fourth round pick.

Given Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney’s pursuit of acquiring Hanifin since he reportedly tried to trade up at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft to select the former Boston College and St. Sebastian’s defenseman, numerous sources have indicated that NHL trade talks between Sweeney and Flames GM Craig Conroy have continued. In fact, as reported here, Flames senior advisor to the GM and assistant GM Dave Nonis has scouted the last three Bruins games at TD Garden. With all that in mind, and with Hanifin now set on hitting the free agency market, will Sweeney make one final push to acquire Noah Hanifin even if he’s a rental, or will he wait until the offseason and try to acquire him without giving up anything in a trade?