Elliotte Friedman reported earlier this week that the Carolina Hurricanes granted permission for pending UFA defenseman Dougie Hamilton to speak with other teams. While it still seems like a deal with the Hurricanes is not off the table, this opens the door to a possible sign-and-trade scenario.
So which teams might target adding Hamilton to their D-corps? The Hockey News put out a tiered list of suitors, with the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, and Winnipeg Jets suggested as possibly the most aggressive. Let’s take a look at these three teams, along with the potential for re-signing in Carolina to see which team stands to gain the most.
For the analysis, we’ll start with the offseason rosters built as per this post. Key points to remember are that all UFAs have been removed from rosters and we’ve assumed all RFAs will return. The Hockey News article suggested Alex Pietrangelo as a comparable for Hamilton’s contract, and we’ll assume he comes in at an $8M cap hit. For the rest of the contract data we’ll use CapFriendly. Finally, we’ll assume that none of the suitors gives up a roster player in a sign-and-trade for the purposes of this analysis.
Carolina Hurricanes
It doesn’t sound like the Hurricanes have closed the door on re-signing Hamilton. With Hamilton back on board, the Canes get a decent bump to their predicted point percentage (+0.007) and still have nearly $20M in cap space.
Chicago Blackhawks
If the Chicago Blackhawks look to accelerate their rebuild, Hamilton could provide a boost for their defense corps. The Hawks stand to gain a bit more than the Hurricanes by adding Hamilton, with a +0.012 boost to their predicted point percentage lifting them past the Jets in the projected standings. However, cap management may be a challenge should Chicago land Hamilton.
Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers would certainly benefit from an upgrade to their RD and the likely top pair of Hamilton and Ivan Provorov would anchor their defense. Our model projects a similar benefit for the Flyers as we saw with the Blackhawks in impact to predicted point percentage.
Winnipeg Jets
The Jets defense lacks a true star defenseman to anchor the back end and adding Hamilton would fill that void. The impact of adding Hamilton is the greatest of the teams we’ve looked at, with a boost of +0.019 to the Jets’ projected point percentage, which moves them 2 spots higher in the projected Central Division standings.
What do you think? Where would Dougie Hamilton fit best? Leave a comment or find me on Twitter if you’d like to see Hamilton’s impact in another jersey.
