“For an old school guy, he’s maybe like a Rob Blake kind of guy,†a Western Conference amateur scout said. “That big, that strong can skate, can do it both ways. Just one of those big horses every good team in the league has one or more of those guys. He’s going to be one of those guys who will be a fixture for a long time you can rely on a lot and using in all situations. “
Oh the horror, a Rob Blake-type player on your blueline for the next 10 seasons. Didn’t he just get elected into the Hall of Fame and have his number retired by Los Angeles?
There’s a lot of facets to Hanifin’s game, so many that for some it’s hard to figure out how he will look at the NHL level, because he can do so much as a blueliner.
“The thing with Noah is he’s hard to, what I would call … pinpoint a comparable to him. He’s a good mixture of a lot of hall of famers and a lot of future hall of famers,†NHL central scouting director Dan Marr said, going big and bold. “For me, he’s a real old school, old soul player who is excelling in today’s game, and when I say that, he just has that composure on the ice with and without the puck and is never rattled. He rarely makes mistakes, he’s rarely out of position. And when he does get into a position where he has to recover, he can do it quickly.
