I agree with this assessment, J-Bo was more of try to force the player to the outside with his skating and positioning and fish for the puck with his stick, he shied away from a ton of battles and that certainly isn't the case with Hanifin, he engages in battles with purpose and tends to win them pretty handily. He's not a nasty player though he isn't laying nasty cross-checks into peoples lower backs infront of the net like Derrian Hatcher or Chris Pronger and he isn't hunting out there for those huge hits like Scott Stevens or Niklas Kronwall, but he's still a far ways off from being a softy like J-Bo or Tom Gilbert. I agree smarts and positioning are a lot more important then nastiness, it should be pointed out though that our management group still puts a priority on that, so I'm guessing that element factors much more heavily into their decisions then it does the average fan. I would hazard a guess that nasty physical element played a role in us picking Nurse. We also tried trading up for McIlrath in his draft year and we still like having our resident tough guys, and we've picked up guys like Fraser, Fistric, and Aulie who clearly were clearly never acquired for their puck-moving abilities.
Although I'm not sure if I agree with the general sentiment that being a Bouwmeester like defensemen should be considered a slanderous statement, he was very soft early and it took him a while to find his way, but he is a good defenseman in the here and now it just took him forever to get there, there have been far more disappointing d-men drafted early. From everything I've seen from Hanifin he could probably play right now and I don't think it would take him very long to get the hang of it, for the purposes of proper development 1 more year of college though would probably be best, I'd bet money that he will find his way in the league a lot quicker then JBo did. I liked the comparisons of Alzner and Vlasic who I consider to be pretty close to the cream of the crop defensively and still contribute a bit more then just being pure shutdown guys, some scouts that I respect keep dropping the name Ryan McDonagh as a comp and this might be closer to the mark as I'm sure they've watched him more then me. McDonagh would reflect his defensive gifts, mobility, capacity to log huge minutes, and the ability to chip in offensively, but as I've argued I don't think his offense will ever be his strong suit and I think he lacks the natural gifts to be a top tier powerplay quarterback.