New Knights defenseman set to face old team: ‘It’ll be pretty cool’

At least Noah Hanifin is getting the reunion out of the way.

The left-shot defenseman has been with the Golden Knights for a week and has been focused on helping his new team make the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So far, so good. The Knights are 2-1-0 since acquiring Hanifin in a trade with the Calgary Flames on March 6 for three draft picks — one sent to the Philadelphia Flyers for salary retention — and depth defenseman Daniil Miromanov.

His fourth game with his new team will be a little different, however. Hanifin will make his return trip to Calgary when the Knights face the Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome at 6 p.m. Thursday.

“It’ll probably be a little weird, to be honest,” Hanifin said. “It’s so quick from being traded. It’ll probably be a little odd going back to the Saddledome on a different team, but it’ll be pretty cool.”

Hanifin has been with the Flames most of his NHL career.

He was drafted fifth overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2015. He played three seasons for the Hurricanes before being traded along with center Elias Lindholm to Calgary in June 2018 for forward Micheal Ferland, defenseman Dougie Hamilton and the signing rights to future Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox.

Hanifin signed a six-year, $29.7 million contract with the Flames two months later that expires after this season.

The 27-year-old grew into a productive two-way defenseman in Calgary, finishing his tenure there with 191 points in 420 games. Hanifin had a career-high 11 goals this season before being traded.

The deal forced him to move fast. Hanifin landed in Las Vegas at 10 a.m. the next day and was in the lineup that night for the Knights’ 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

“It’ll be kind of nice to get a chance after the game to say an actual goodbye to some of the guys,” Hanifin said. “I didn’t really get to see them because it was so abrupt when I got traded.”

The Flames moved on from Hanifin to kick-start their rebuild. Calgary (31-29-5), coming off a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, is 10 points back of the Knights for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Miromanov scored his first goal for Calgary in the defeat.

The Knights (35-23-7) added to their standings cushion with a come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win in Seattle on Tuesday, winning consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 6-8.

Coach Bruce Cassidy said it’s human nature for a club to rally for a teammate facing his former team. That could be a source of motivation for the Knights as they try to win three in a row for the first time since Jan. 15-22.

“Noah spent a lot of time there. That’ll be interesting for him, but players go through that,” Cassidy said. “(His teammates) want him to do well, so I think that will give them motivation to do well.”

Hanifin has two assists through three games with the Knights and is three points away from his second career 40-point season.

He just wants to get back to the playoffs for the fourth time in his career. A win against his former team will help that cause.

“Hopefully we go put on a good game, get a win and (I’ll) maybe catch up with some guys after,” Hanifin said.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.