Arizona Coyotes: Looking Forward – Noah Hanifin

By Thomas Malone |

Noah Hanifin Makes Sense For The Arizona Coyotes

The Stanley Cup has been officially awarded and you know what that means! Draft Day is on the horizon folks! And, the 2015 draft has been the topic of much hype, but this can only be expected. We are looking at the most stacked draft in recent memory. I think everyone has formed a consensus on the first two picks, and I look forward to seeing Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel play for the Oilers and Sabers. (If things go as planned)

The Arizona Coyotes may have lost the draft lottery, and while that hurts it is nothing to turn your nose up at, especially with this draft. But, since the first and second overall is such a no brainer, that makes the Coyotes pick extremely important. Who they pick might set the tone for the whole draft.

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Not only that, it will most likely hint what kind of team the Coyotes will look like in the years to come. Will we be looking to reclaim our status as a defensive juggernaut, or try to build ourselves up as an offensive powerhouse?

There are several likely candidates for the Arizona Coyotes to draft in the first round, and no one can seem to come to a consensus to who they think will go third overall.

I have seen plenty of guessing games about who the Desert Dogs are going to draft third overall. However, I want to look at the most likely candidates and see what values they will add for the team, and paint a picture of what the Arizona Coyotes with that player, might end up looking like.

I’ll take a look at other possibilities in my next posts.

Noah Hanifin– I’m a huge fan of this Boston College D-Man, he has the size Coyote fans crave at 6’3” he is obviously going to be a physical force, but that is not what makes him special. His Hockey IQ is off the charts , not only does he have the ability to read and break up offensive plays, he knows what to do once the puck gets on his stick.

Hanifin has earned a reputation quarterbacking Boston College’s offense, he plays defense by thinking about the offense and earned a respectable 23 points (5g-18a) doing so.

The Coyotes with Hanifin- There isn’t a part of the Coyotes that doesn’t need fixing, and the team’s D can definitely use some patching up, being third to the last in goals against can attest to this. Ekman-Larsson needs a reliable partner at his side, a defender who can play ice to his fire, but Hanifin is more than just that.

He has proven his offensive capabilities, and he knows how to set up plays to quarterback a team’s offense. He and Oliver Ekman-Larsson would do nicely together, and might become one of the most dominant defensive pairings in the league. A pairing that not only knows how to keep pucks out of their net, but turn the play around and put some points on the board as well.

Alternatively you could also stick him on the line with another one of the Arizona Coyotes big bodied, young defensemen. Hanifin with either Campbell (6’4″), Stone (6’3″), or even Dahlbeck (6’2″), this could make an imposing wall that would be tough for goal scorers to break through.

Yet they will have a kick of offensive skill that could turn a big defensive play into an offensive opportunity. It probably wouldn’t be as electrifying as a Ekman-Larsson/Hanifin line, but it could be more beneficial to the Arizona Coyotes’ Goals Against Average.

Next: Why Arizona Coyotes Will Take Noah Hanifin At #3

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