REPORT: Noah Hanifin's Four Teams He's Willing To Extend With Revealed By Insider

On his most recent episode of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman spoke about Noah Hanifin. The rumblings that Friedman has heard are that Hanifin prefers to sign in the USA on his next contract. With that goal in mind, Hanifin has 4 preferred destinations at the trade deadline.

As you can see not only are Hanifin's preferred destinations all in the U.S. but they are all contending teams. This then prompts the question of which team would most likely go after Hanifin.

It is no secret that Noah Hanifin will be moved before the deadline. Let's take a look at his four preferred teams and the most likely scenario.

First up is the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are without top defenseman Mikhail Sergachev for a significant amount of time. This creates a need for a defenseman of Hanifin's caliber. However, with Tampa's long-term salary cap situation, a long-term deal might not work there.

The Boston Bruins are a team trying to do everything they can to compete. Bringing in Hanifin would strengthen their defensive group that lost a couple of key players in free agency. Once again the fit long term in Boston could get tricky.

Third up is the Florida Panthers. Another team is in a tight cap situation. They have a similar defensive group to last season but could use a boost. With several key free agents at forward, the Panthers could allocate that money to Hanifin.

Finally, the New Jersey Devils are a team that has managed their cap space fairly well. If they wanted to take a run at Hanifin they could likely give him an extension. However, this would push down top young players like Luke Hughes and Simon Nemece especially in the future with the return of Dougie Hamilton.

Each team that could land Noah Hanifin will need to assess the pros and cons. Once one team takes a swing it will be interesting to see if it pays off and leaves other teams regretting on missing out.