Dougie Hamilton
New team: Carolina Hurricanes
Acquired: Trade with Calgary
Clarkson regret-o-meter: 1.5 David Clarksons
On the other end of that trade for Lindholm and Hanifin, the biggest name coming back from Calgary was Dougie Hamilton. Now that Carolina is seemingly revitalized, being one of the more exciting teams to watch, it’s hard for anyone to have any regrets for any moves the team made over the summer.
Hamilton is a blue-liner known for goal scoring and has scored a couple of times this season, and now can get lost in a very underrated, strong defense corps. He’s got three years left on his contract, which is fine, but what worries me is that there’s a reason he was traded twice by his 25th birthday. Though, that’s a very small worry for me now, especially with times so high right now in Carolina.
Ilya Kovalchuk
New team: Los Angeles Kings
Acquired: Signed for 3 years, $18.75 million
Clarkson regret-o-meter: 3 David Clarksons
Ilya Kovalchuk is back. After winning a couple of championships with SKA St. Petersberg, his Russian contract expiring, and his 35th birthday, Kovalchuk was able to return to the NHL. Before this summer, he wouldn’t have been able to return without the permission of all 31 teams, or first signing with New Jersey.
He then turned 35, so he became free to sign anywhere he wanted, and he picked the Kings. The contract wasn’t so bad, but the problem became the rest of the Kings. They are currently sitting in last place in the division, and are now without their starting goalie for the immediate future.
More relevantly, their offense is by far the worst in the league, something they signed Kovalchuk to help fix. The team is only getting older, and this contract, being a 35+ contract so it’s fully guaranteed, isn’t looking nearly as good as it was before. He’s not the source of the offensive absence, but if the Kings are going to rebuild, it’ll be tough to navigate around this contract.