How will the Boston Bruins Handle Dougie Hamilton
When the Boston Bruins terminated Peter Chiarelli at the end of the season, they had good reason to do so. Not only had the Boston Bruins failed to make the playoffs that season, they were locked in place by a series of bad contracts that overpaid their players. Now with Don Sweeney running the show, his first big act as GM could be a repeat of his predecessor’s mistakes.
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With less than a month before the start of free agency, the Black and Gold still haven’t decided what they’re going to do about Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton is coming off his third year in the organization, and he’s improved his game every year. Last season, he was tied for fourth in points overall (42), and put up ten goals in seventy-two games.
Hamilton has become one of the best young blueliners for the B’s in the last decade. The 21-year old has a strong hockey IQ, and has great instincts when it comes to making plays on the ice. He has an incredibly strong shot, and has been an asset to the Bruins’ special teams when they’ve had a man advantage.
Hamilton still has ways to go before becoming an elite NHL player. He’s not as physical as he could be. His instinct in the back two zones aren’t as strong as they are in the offensive one. He’s still prone to miscues. Those miscues costs the Bruins points as Hamilton was forced to become a top line defensemen when the Bruins lost Zdeno Chara (not to mention Dennis Seidenberg or Johnny Boychuk).
Currently, Hamilton is a restricted free agent. He won’t have any arbitration rights. While it is highly unlikely another team would throw an offer sheet at him (look to his old GM over in Edmonton as a possibility), he could still get one. The free agent market for defensemen is pretty lean this year, and Dougie Hamilton could easily be in the top five if he ended up landing in free agent frenzy.
The Boston Bruins are in serious cap trouble, and everyone in the league knows it. They’ve got very little money left to them, and they’re likely to lose the services of Carl Soderberg because of it. The Boston Bruins know they can’t afford to give up the blue line version of Tyler Seguin, and they may respond to that by repeating the mistakes of the Chiarelli era.
It’s an ugly situation that Don Sweeney has walked into. He’s got to figure out how to keep Hamilton. He’s still young, and he’s still learning the game. But he is a player of serious potential, and he can be a career Bruin if the organization approaches it correctly.