Flames' Noah Hanifin trade return is down to two unproven prospects after player exits the NHL
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Daniil Miromanov has signed with SKA St. Petersburg, and his NHL exit leaves the Calgary Flames' Noah Hanifin trade return riding entirely on unproven prospects.
Daniil Miromanov is officially a KHL player again, and his departure quietly ends the last living piece of a 2024 deadline blockbuster.
Elite Prospects logged the transfer to SKA St. Petersburg on August 7, confirming months of reporting from Sport-Express that pointed him back to Russia.
The 28-year-old right-shot defenceman spent his entire NHL career with two teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Calgary Flames, after going undrafted out of the QMJHL.
The Hanifin return just lost its only NHL body
Calgary acquired Miromanov on March 6, 2024, when Craig Conroy sent Noah Hanifin to Vegas at 50 percent retained salary, with the Philadelphia Flyers retaining another 25 percent as broker.
The rest of the return was paper. A 2024 third-round pick became goaltender Kirill Zarubin, and a first-rounder that eventually landed at 30th overall in 2026 became centre Jack Hextall.
Miromanov was the only piece who could dress for Ryan Huska tomorrow.
He played one game for the Flames in 2025-26, cleared waivers in October, and spent the year with the Calgary Wranglers.
There he posted 11 goals and 38 points in 66 games.
A deadline trade that will not be gradeable until 2030
Hextall is headed to Michigan State this fall. Zarubin is still working through the Flames goaltending queue.
Neither has played an NHL shift, which means Calgary's return for a top-four defenceman now consists entirely of futures with no shared timeline.
Hanifin, meanwhile, is entering year three of an eight-year, $58.8 million contract in Vegas and has already reached a Stanley Cup Final.
That gap is the part worth watching league-wide. Every deadline seller takes back a roster player alongside the picks, and that player is almost always the first asset to disappear.
The picks are the slowest to mature and the last to be judged.
Calgary's Hanifin file will not have a real answer until the end of the decade.
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