Well, Dougie Hamilton is now headed toward his third team in 6+ seasons. For those of you who don’t know or remember, let us point out some HFFA inside humor;  Hamilton is formerly of the Bruins and now Flames.  In 2015, the Bruins had three consecutive picks in the first round of that draft, of which one was acquired from Calgary.  With that pick (15) the Bruins selected Zach Senyshyn, but could have easily selected Jake DeBrusk at 15 (instead of 14, we digress).  We have recently anointed DeBrusk as our the new Pope of HFFA (because of his whopping, unprecedented, and probably unsustainable +28 AB!!!!!), and now that Darren Helm seems to be on the down-slope of his career (RIP). Oh, and JDB’s pedigree as son of pugilist Louis DeBrusk is a most enchanting backstory.

Anyway, the newest lucky winners in all things Dougie are the Carolina Hurricanes, who acquired Hamilton (and Michael Ferland) for Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm.

If this could be a bad trade for both teams, it would be.  Here’s why.

Hanifin (-5.59AB) was selected 5th in 2015 by Carolina.  In short, they messed up with that pick……(partially because he has not proven to be either a two way player or point producer, despite his durability, and partially because the Canes could have had Matthew Barzal, Brock Boeser, Zach Werenski or the aforementioned pontiff JDB in the same draft).  Heck if they had better luck in the draft lottery, they could have had McDavid, Eichel or Marner.  To be a Caniac.  Ugh.  We digress again.

As for Elias Lindholm, he has not been much better in his young career, although there really wasn’t much talent to choose from in the 2013 draft in which he was also picked 5th.  However, he has been steady, and performed roughly at the level of replacement.  In short, not a great use of the 5th pick overall either.

Both these guys are essentially minor league players, at best.

On the Carolina side, we must admit we……like….Michael Ferland (+1.65AB).  He has shown steady improvement since breaking into the league in 2014 after being selected in the 5th round in 2010.  To us, given his play at both ends, Ferland is becoming a serviceable NHL player, marginally better than replacement.

And…..as for Hamilton…..we have been all over him as a mistake maximizer since the beginning (see – Why do Bruins fans hate the Dougie Hamilton deal?) We spotted then what Boston, and now Calgary, and what we think Carolina will eventually realize; even though Hamilton has impressive offensive stats for a defensemen, he is one of the worst players in the NHL according to our score (-6.69 AB) and has been for his whole career).

I guess the Canes brass doesn’t read our site.  Oh well.  Hockey here is Free…for….all.  The Hamilton foray is going to cost them $5.75mm per year through 2021.  #moneytheyhadtospendtogettothecapfloor.

Fiscally, the Hurricanes do not have the luxury of making big mistakes like this as they struggle to spend to the salary floor (now that Cam Ward is gone).  Even though neither team did anything to advance themselves with this trade, in our opinion, Carolina, given its financial and new ownership situation, needs to spend its money on personnel that can assist them at making the playoffs, not cause them to run in place or worse.  Let this sink in – Carolina was 24th on the penalty kill last year and 22nd in man up play. Dougie is going to the box (over/under) 35 times in 2018-19.  Sorry Caniacs, we would hold back on rushing out to buy a Hamilton jersey, unless you want to go on ebay and buy one from a Bruin or Flame fan…..cheap.

Tune in next time when we profess our man crush on JDB and why he is the second coming of Darren Helm.