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Why Arizona Coyotes Will Take Noah Hanifin At #3

By William Grigsby

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Arizona Coyotes Have Big Decision To Make As Draft Nears — Here’s Why They Should Select Noah Hanifin

If one were to check on the draft rankings, you would find Noah Hanifin being projected as the third overall in five of six ranking agencies, including NHL.com. There’s a reason for that — the young man is near NHL ready, and  is a big, smooth skating defenseman. One NHL head scout described him this way: ” He could be Scott Niedermayer. He skates like him.”

Some scouts like Noah Hanifin better than Seth Jones at the same stage of development.

When I started reading up about Noah Hanfin I found some interesting facts. Boston Bruin Hall of Famer Bobby Orr is his agent, as well as number one pick Connor McDavid.  He goes to school at Boston College, while the number two pick Jack Eichel, attends Boston University.

If the Arizona Coyotes were to select him, (and he was NHL ready) he was wearing jersey number 11 (taken already by Martin Hanzal, if he doesn’t get traded), and jersey number three. Now, unless you’ve lived in a cave the last eight years, and weren’t following the Arizona Coyotes, you would know that the number three was Keith Yandle’s number.

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Noah Hanfin describes himself as an offensive defenseman, and he is from the Boston area, like Yandle, and the similarities just hit me. He is bigger than Yandle (6′ 1″/ 190) while Hanifin comes in at 6′ 2.75″/ 203).

So, are you thinking the same thing I’m thinking? Did the Arizona Coyotes management hope to be able to land Noah Hanifin when they traded away Yandle? Doubt they can be that insightful, but it may turn out that way. With the team acquiring Anthony Duclair in the Yandle deal, they hope to fortify their offense, and supplement it even more with Max Domi, and possibly Henrik Samuelsson, Brendan Perlini, and or Christian Dvorak added to the equation.

I was all for adding to the offense and taking an offensive dynamo like Dylan Strome, or even Mitch Marner, but then I started thinking. The Arizona Coyotes defense last season was pretty deficient —  to put it mildly. So, if the Arizona Coyotes can add the offensive players mentioned above, and have Mikkel Boedker and Martin Hanzal both back from injuries — the team should be better off offensively. Stay with me now…

Looking defensively, it’s a different story. Brandon Gormley has been a disappointment, and the team is still developing Connor Murphy, and Andrew Campbell to some degree. If you think objectively for just a moment and imagine a defensive lineup of:

  • Oliver Ekman-Larssson with Michael Stone
  • Connor Murphy with John Moore (who played well together at the IIHF for Team USA)
  • Hanifin with Campbell/Dahlbeck
  • Plus, there is Philip Samulesson in the AHL who played some solid defense last season with Portland.

It starts to fall in place.

With Campbell coming in at 6′ 4″ /206 and Hanifin at 6′ 3″ / 203 the wingers and centers on the opposing teams will have some difficulty breaking into their offensive zone.

Let’s see better offense, AND better defense (throw in better goaltending also) can really change the fortunes of any NHL team, so why not the Arizona Coyotes as well?

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