He played 3 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League during the 1948–49 season.

The rest of his career lasted from 1947 to 1955 and was spent in the minor leagues.

His brothers, Pat and Gord, also played professional hockey.

Hannigan was ordained 1991 as a Catholic priest and later lived in the United States.

[1] This biographical article relating to a Canadian ice hockey winger born in the 1920s is a stub.