Let's talk Dougie Hamilton

The door will soon open for trading the veteran defenseman if the New Jersey Devils feel it's necessary to do so.

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The New Jersey Devils have a lot of work to do this off-season. While the core is strong and under team control long-term, the Devils need to improve the surrounding pieces.

Unfortunately, they don’t have a ton of money to do so. Extensions for Luke Hughes, and, to a much lesser extent, Cody Glass will eat into a lot of what they’ll have available in the coming months.

The obvious – and most likely – way to clear money off the books to improve the team’s flexibility is to move on from Ondrej Palat, ideally via trade.

JP Gambatese hinted at another possibility I haven’t seen thrown around much, though, and that is trading Dougie Hamilton.

I don’t think it’s likely, per se, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Dougie shipped out this summer.

Let’s take a closer look at why, as well as some of the pros and cons of going down that road.

The door is opening

‘Todd, you idiot, you absolute moron, Hamilton is signed for three more seasons at $9 million and has trade protection.’

That’s right! He is and he does. But Hamilton is about to become much more tradeable than he’s been at any point in his tenure with the team (not that they’d have any reason to move off of him prior).

Hamilton’s full no-move will soon convert into a modified no-trade in which he submits a list of 10 teams he’d accept a trade to.

Hamilton also has $25.2 million remaining on his contract, $10.55 million of which will be paid in signing bonuses on July 1.

Take that out of the equation and any team would only be on the hook for $14.65 million over the final three years of Hamilton’s contract.

That’s $4.83 million per year in real dollars for Hamilton – a much more palatable number for clubs that might not want to spend out the ass but could fit his cap hit in (or outright need it to surpass the floor).

Although 10 teams isn’t a ton to work with, given Hamilton’s cap hit will greatly exceed the real dollars owed, it’s certainly in the realm of possibility that the Devils can find a match in there.

The case for trading Dougie