Will Dougie Hamilton be hit with an offer sheet?
Now that the Boston Bruins have announced that Don Sweeney is their GM, and that they’ve agreed that Claude Julien will be their head coach, they’ve got their first real crisis to deal with. (For the moment, let’s pretend that salary cap crisis isn’t their number one problem.)
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There is a possibility that another team could offer Dougie Hamilton an offer sheet. TSN’s Darren Drager brought it up in a conversation on TSN Toronto 1050. (Dougie Hamilton gets mentioned at the 4:33 mark). Drager does make a solid point. Hamilton is considered to be the future of the Bruins blueline. It was Boston’s plan to make Dougie a career Bruins player.
“When you’re looking at Dougie Hamilton, his agents are looking at something that’s probably going to mirror [Alex] Pietrangelo or [Drew] Doughty. So upwards of $6-6.5-7 million per year … I think Boston would love to keep him. But there’s a salary cap issue, as we know, in Boston. And if you’re a rival team, why wouldn’t you try?
I know the Bruins brought him in and they have high hopes of him kind of one day taking over from Zdeno Chara. But Dougie Hamilton could be the poster boy for that sort of scenario. Not saying it’s going to happen, of course, but offer sheets in offseason are always tempting.” TSN’s Darren Drager
If another team offered up that kind of offer sheet, the Boston Bruins would be in serious trouble. There would be no way they could match that offer sheet without having A.) Some kind of fire sale to compensate for that kind of contract or B.) playing the 2015-16 season with bottom-six forwards who would be salary minimum players with limited NHL experience.
If another team offers Hamilton and offer sheet, if Hamilton accepts it and the Boston Bruins don’t match it, the Bruins will be entitled to compensation in the form of draft picks. In the six million dollar range, that will entitle the Bruins to a first, a second, and a third round draft pick. Those draft picks would be based on that team’s standing in the respective draft (not draft picks that were traded in to that organization).
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That’s a pretty steep price to pay to steal Dougie Hamilton away. It’s one of the reasons why offer sheet moves don’t happen that often (The last being Dustin Penner in 2007).
While Hamilton is an excellent player right now, he’s still young and makes mistakes. He’s not totally comfortable playing as a three-zone, two-way defensemen yet. It’s an awful big gamble to bet on someone’s potential, and those factors will turn most teams off from making an offer sheet on the 21-year old blueliner.
Still, it might be a tempting prospect. Some teams have the cash available to make such a move, and they might not deem the loss of draft picks to be a big enough deterrence to try to score such a solid player with the potential to be an amazing one.
So what happens if that unlikely occurs? If another team offers that kind of sheet, the Boston Bruins should just give up Dougie Hamilton.
What would possess me to make that kind of statement you ask?
The organization is still reeling from their going all in for Jarome Iginla. The Bruins pushed for another Stanley Cup and lost that bet. Then they got hampered in even more by paying the penalties for getting the future Hall of Famer. The last thing the Bruins need is to have history repeat itself with Hamilton.
Is it worth gutting the team for the near future to keep a single player in Boston?
The Bruins could certainly use those draft picks. Dougie Hamilton was acquired by a draft pick trade given up by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Boston Bruins could very likely cash in with those picks in the future.