NHL Trade Deadline: No Hanifin For Bruins; What About Lindholm?

After being linked to the Boston Bruins in trade chatter all season, Norwood, MA native Noah Hanifin will not come home to play for the Bruins before the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline this Friday at 3 p.m. ET.

Hockey social media lit up at dinnertime on Wednesday night as news broke that the Calgary Flames had traded Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights. TSN NHL Insider Darren Dreger reported that a contract extension was in the works with Hanifin and the defending Stanley Cup champions.

VGK and Calgary Flames completing a trade to send Hanifin to Vegas. Contract extension also in the works.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) March 6, 2024

Later in the evening, it was announced that the trade was a three-way trade, with the Philadelphia Flyers serving as the broker.

In exchange for Hanifin, the Calgary Flames acquired defenseman Daniil Miromanov, a 2025 first-round pick (conditional), and a 2025 third-round pick (conditional) from the Golden Knights. The Flames retain 50 percent of Hanifin’s salary in the trade. The first-round pick is top-10 protected and becomes a 2026 first-round pick if the Golden Knights trade their 2025 pick before the deadline. The third-round pick upgrades to the second round if the Golden Knights win a playoff round.

Hanifin was in the final season of a six-year contract with a $4.5 million salary cap hit. The former St. Sebastian’s and Boston College defenseman reportedly wanted to be traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also was reportedly willing to sign an extension with the Bruins’ Atlantic Division rival. After weeks of NHL trade talks between the two teams, no common ground could be found, and Flames GM Craig Conroy turned his focus to the Golden Knights.

Numerous sources have indicated to Boston Hockey Now that the Bruins were still interested in Hanifin even after the news of his interest in the Lightning was made public. It has yet to be discovered if they were still engaged in NHL trade talks on Hanifin until he was dealt to the Golden Knights.

While the Bruins may have lost out on Hanifin, it appeared they were still very much in play when it came to Vancouver Canucks center Elias Lindholm. Late Tuesday afternoon, TSN NHL Insider Chris Johnston reported that there was chatter that just over a month after the Vancouver Canucks acquired Lindholm from the Calgary Flames, they could flip him to the Bruins and then acquire Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel.

With the #canucks believed to be among those pursuing Jake Guentzel, word is they've had discussions about potentially flipping Elias Lindholm to the #bruins as part of the machinations to make it happen.

Nothing concrete in place at this time. Still lots of moving parts.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 5, 2024

Just over an hour before the Hanifin trade news broke, ESPN and NHL Network Insider Kevin Weekes tweeted an interesting tidbit on those Lindholm trade talks.

👀
Plenty of potential deal scenarios out there right now, but this one I heard has caught my attention ;
Guentzel to @Canucks
DeBrusk to @penguins
Lindholm to @NHLBruins
In a potential 3 way deal.#HockeyX

— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) March 6, 2024

 It’s no secret that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has been listening to trade offers for DeBrusk, who can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. An NHL source did confirm to BHN that the Penguins have expressed interest in DeBrusk this season and also after news broke that he had requested a trade during the 2021-22 regular season. With the Penguins moving Guentzel in the trade, and expected to make some big changes to clear salary cap space, they could get a cheaper player who has shown signs he can be a 30-goal scorer.

Just over two hours later, though, news started to leak that the Canucks were out on Guentzel because Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas’ asking price was too high.

From what I’ve been told tonight, Jake Guentzel isn’t going to Vancouver unless Kyle Dubas’ asking price goes down. The Canucks would love to land him. But Dubas is asking for a price that they aren’t currently willing to pay.
Gonna be interesting.

— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) March 7, 2024

As of 9:45 p.m. ET there was no telling how that would affect the Bruins’ chances of landing Lindholm from the Canucks.