Carolina Hurricanes: Is the third time the charm for Dougie Hamilton?

Could the Carolina Hurricanes finally give Dougie Hamilton a long-term home?

For a player synonymous with the number 27 – and later 19 – Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton surely has a thing for threes.

Since being drafted

third

ninth overall in the 2011 NHL Draft, Hamilton has played for three different teams at the NHL level. Assuming nothing crazy goes down before the regular season opens up in roughly a month, the 2020-21 season will also mark the third straight occasion where Hamilton has played three consecutive seasons with the same club – first with the Boston Bruins, then the Calgary Flames, and finally with the Hurricanes.

While one could point to the sheer volume of assets that have been surrendered to acquire Hamilton as a badge of honor for just how highly in demand the Toronto, Ontario native is, was, and will remain moving forward, isn’t it also rather alarming just how frequently teams are willing to sell on the now-27-year-old? I mean, the Flames had to quite literally sweeten the pot with additional assets to land the rights to a pair of restricted free agents (Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin) in 2018, and they’d just surrendered a first and two second-round picks to bring him to town in 2015.

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Sidebar: If the Hurricanes knew where Lindholm and Hanifin would be in 2019-20, do you think they’d do the deal again? It’s not like the team got much out of Micheal Ferland or Adam Fox.

Despite having scored 10-plus goals and 20-plus assists in every season since 2014-15 – including an insane 14 goals in 47 games before having his season cut short in 2019-20 – Hamilton has never been named an All-Star and has never been higher than seventh in Norris Trophy voting. Chalk it up to the burned bridges he’s left with some of his former teams (see Flames, Calgary), or a shaky narrative that he’s more flash than substance, but it’s pretty clear there’s a small but vocal segment of NHL fans who really don’t want to see Doug Hamilton’s son thrive.

No, the biggest question surrounding Hamilton shouldn’t be whether or not he’s a good player – as he undoubtedly is – but just how good is he.

Why? Because Hamilton is entering the final year of the six-year, $34.5 million contract he signed with the Flames back in 2015 and will need to agree to something new before he can continue on with his NHL career either in Raleigh or elsewhere.

Now make no mistake about it, the Hurricanes have certainly gotten good value out of Hamilton over the past two seasons. He’s ranked fifth in goals scored in both 2018-19 and 2019-20 despite having only appeared in 129 regular-season games and has remained an active participant on the defensive end of the ice as both a hitter and a shot blocker. Had Hamilton been healthy for even a dozen-more games last season, it’s entirely possible he could have recorded his first 20 goal season as a pro in 2019-20 – an impressive feat that very few defensemen can accomplish in general, let alone without a full 82 game season to work with.

Then again, Hamilton hasn’t exactly looked like an Alex Pietrangelo-style two-way defenseman capable of scoring at a feverish clip and locking down would-be scorers in front of the net. Hamilton has never recorded more than 35 takeaways in a single season, whereas Pietrangelo has averaged 42.9 takeaways for the last decade.

With cash to burn ($33 million) and a slew of intriguing, cheaper options potentially available like Alec Martinez and Ryan Murray – plus whoever becomes available via trade – the Canes have a ton of opportunities to further build out their roster in Don Waddell’s vision without being tied to a single star.

Then again, again, this could be the year where Hamilton finally puts the potential he showed in 2019-20 to good use over a full, yet abbreviated regular season. With every player’s stats presumably destined for a hit as a result, Hamilton could shine through a market light on name-brand star power and garner a massive payday. Even with a flat cap and a presumed desire by many to avoid long-term contracts, Waddell’s desire to lock up Hamilton before the 2020-21 season even opens up is maybe a wise call.

Detractors aside, Hamilton is still a wildly popular player in other NHL circles and could fill a pivotal role as a grizzled vet on a team headlined by a pair of under-25-year-olds (Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho).

Huh, Hamilton being called a grizzled vet. Boy, things change quick in the NHL.

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So what should the Carolina Hurricanes do? Should they extend Dougie Hamilton before the season even opens up, or would they be better off giving him a chance to play out the 2020-21 season to either prove his worth once and for all or prove himself expendable? Fortunately, we probably won’t have to wait too long to find out, as Don Waddell isn’t a GM known for his conservative nature. I think it’s pretty safe to say you can buy a number 19 jersey without much financial risk.

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