The Vegas Golden Knights continue to flex by trading for Noah Hanifin

The Vegas Golden Knights are always putting their best foot forward to try and win the Stanley Cup. Winning has been everything to them since coming into the league as the 31st team.

On Wednesday night, the Knights acquired defenseman Noah Hanifin from the Calgary Flames in a three-team trade including the Philadelphia Flyers.

Hanifin has 75 percent of his deal retained by both Philly and Calgary combined. In return, the Flyers are getting a 2024 fourth-round pick while the Flames are getting Daniil Miromanov, a 2025 first, and a 2024 third.

There are conditions for the two picks to go back to Calgary. If they trade that 2025 first, the pick becomes a 2026 first for Calgary. The third-round pick becomes a second-round pick if Vegas wins one playoff round in 2024.

The Vegas Golden Knights added Noah Hanifin to their blue line

With the salary retention on Hanifin, that leaves the door open for the Golden Knights to make one more splash. They could certainly afford Jake Guentzel at 50 percent of his contract. They could very well make another three-team deal.

The Flames also did them a solid and are allowing them to trade that 2025 first if they can. It is obvious that Vegas is up to something more.

Hanifin is a very impressive defenseman. In addition to being very solid in his own end, he can bring some scoring to the table. So far this season in 61 games, he has 11 goals and 24 assists for 35 points in 61 games played.

Now that he is going to an elite Vegas team, his numbers could get even better than they were in Calgary. With other star defensemen on the team like Shea Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo, their blue line is stacked.

Noah Hanifin went to Boston College. Jack Eichel was at Boston University in the same year. Both of them were incredible and both of them were drafted in the top five. Now, they are teammates in Vegas.

Now, the Flames have some future assets and the Golden Knights made another spectacular trade. We'll see if they are able to make more big moves ahead of a deep playoff run for the second year in a row.