In all likelihood, Dougie Hamilton will soon be suiting up for his fifth NHL club.
It’s been a wild decade-and-a-half in the big leagues for the blue-liner. The 32-year-old has already been involved in two notable trades since debuting as a young star in Boston.
First came a 2015 swap after three seasons with the Boston Bruins, when the Calgary Flames offered up a package of picks to land the offensive-minded rearguard. After three years in Alberta, the Carolina Hurricanes snagged Hamilton, acquiring him via a wild five-piece deal that sent Hamilton, Micheal Ferland and then-NCAA defenceman Adam Fox to the Canes in exchange for Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. Hamilton then landed in New Jersey as a free agent following a three-year run in Raleigh.
Now, midway through his fifth season with New Jersey, he seems set to be on the move again. Earlier this month, the Devils caused a stir when they made the star defender a healthy scratch for a tilt against the Winnipeg Jets. During a Hockey Night in Canada ‘Saturday Headlines’ segment, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Hamilton’s agent, J.P. Barry, believed the move was “a business decision to try to get Hamilton to accept a trade.”
Since returning to the lineup one game later, the blue-liner has shown why he remains an intriguing potential add for teams around the league. Hamilton has posted six points over his past five games, registering at least one helper in each of them.
Still, it appears a deal is coming for the veteran — though Hamilton will have a fair bit of control over where he goes.
The rearguard’s contract includes a modified no-trade clause, Hamilton having provided a list of 10 teams he can be traded to. For any of the other 21 clubs, he can block a move, meaning it would be up to him to waive the clause and allow a deal to go through. That said, per Friedman, Hamilton’s agent indicated the defender will consider teams that are not on his list.
There’s no question there will be interest from several clubs. While he’s had a subpar 2025-26 and seems to be on the outside looking in when it comes to the Devils defence corps, it was only a few years back that Hamilton finished with a career-best 22 goals and 74 points for New Jersey, that effort ranking him as the fourth-most productive blue-liner in the league that season. Since he debuted in the league in 2012-13, Hamilton has collected the 10th-most points among all NHL defenders (517 in 880 games), the ninth-most even-strength points (345), the 17th-most power play points (169), the second-most game-winning goals (34) and the fourth-most shots on net (2,512).
As Adam Vingan pointed out in his piece last week, he remains among the game’s highest-volume shooters from the back end, has a track record of power-play performance, and can still drive play at even-strength.
Still, making a deal work won’t be a simple process. Modified clauses aside, there’s also the fact that Hamilton has two more years on his current deal, carrying a $9-million cap hit, meaning any move to acquire him likely requires some money-clearing from the acquiring club or some salary retention from the Devils, or both. Or, perhaps we’ll see a team with plenty of cap space come out on top.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at some potential landing spots for the Devils’ blue-liner.
-
-
32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
We have to start here, with Hamilton’s hometown team. Toronto’s glaring need for a No. 1 defenceman is well-established at this point. While the club has made efforts to bolster its blue line’s defensive solidity over the past couple of seasons, the team’s back end still lacks that bona fide star, that dynamic offensive talent, to lead the group. Not to mention the Maple Leafs’ defence corps has been hit hard by injuries, most notably to right-side stalwart Chris Tanev, and more recently to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the club’s current offensive leader from the back end.
The key here, though, is the power play. Morgan Rielly has returned to quarterback duties for Toronto’s PP1, and while the Leafs’ man-advantage has found more success of late after its lengthy slump to start the year, it’s long been clear that the Maple Leafs’ power play would benefit immensely from a defender who can both facilitate the cycle game and provide a genuine shooting threat from the point.
Enter Hamilton, who sits tied with Rasmus Dahlin for the seventh-most shots among all NHL defenders this season. The potential fit is clear — what’s more muddied is how the Leafs could make a deal work, as the club has little cap space to work with and few assets to move.
In the aforementioned Saturday Headlines segment, Friedman also revealed that the Sharks tried to swing a deal for Hamilton in the summer, but the defender blocked the move. However, Friedman wondered if Hamilton might change his mind if that deal were presented to him again, given how things have shifted in San Jose. Rewind to the off-season, and the club was coming off their second straight year of finishing 32nd of 32 NHL clubs. Now, they’ve emerged as one of the most intriguing squads in the league and have a legitimate chance of returning to the post-season.
Most importantly, Sharks talisman Macklin Celebrini has emerged as a bona fide all-world talent, ranking as one of the most prolific scorers in the league this season and a genuine Hart Trophy candidate. Also working in the club’s favour is opportunity. While John Klingberg is holding down the fort on the right side and quarterbacking the team’s top power play unit, Hamilton would seemingly have a good shot of taking over those duties if brought aboard. The interest from San Jose’s end seems clear — on the player’s side, could the chance to team up with future Olympian Celebrini pull Hamilton to California?
What about another up-and-coming Californian club? The Ducks are riding a wave of progress themselves this season after finishing well out of the playoff race last year. They’re currently third in the Pacific and looking every bit a legitimate outfit in the West. But there’s no question the Ducks aren’t yet set up to contend with the best of their conference, with Western behemoths Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota looming large. The West’s best are deep and dangerous — for Anaheim to truly make some noise, they need more firepower, simply put.
Anaheim does have a flourishing No. 1 rearguard leading their blue line at the moment, of course, in Jackson LaCombe. But he plays on the left. Which means, if Hamilton were brought in, he could slide in seamlessly beside the 25-year-old on the top pair, above Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas. Also key to note: Anaheim is flush with cap space, sitting with more than $24 million at the moment, per PuckPedia, meaning they could swing a deal for Hamilton without requiring the Devils to retain a portion of the veteran’s salary.
-
-
Real Kyper’s Trade Board
Hockey Insider Nick Kypreos shares the latest intel on players who could be on the move this season.
It’s a similar story for the Utah Mammoth. In Year 2 of the franchise’s new chapter, the Mammoth have shown some promise — like the Ducks, they’ve clawed their way out of the wild-card extras and currently sit on track for a return to the playoffs. And like those other young upstart clubs in the West, Utah still has a clear need for more top-end talent if it hopes to make any real noise once it gets there. There’s a similar situation here in terms of opportunity — the Mammoth have two-time Cup winner Mikhail Sergachev leading the left side of their back end, meaning Hamilton could slot in beside him, moving Sean Durzi and John Marino down in the lineup, adding more offensive skill to the top of the defence corps.
There’s also the owner factor. It’s no secret that the organization’s new leaders have been on the hunt for a marquee name to add to the mix — heading into the 2025-26 campaign, Friedman tabbed the Mammoth as a team to watch, given the Smiths’ history of taking big swings with their other franchise, the NBA’s Utah Jazz, and the likelihood of them taking a similar approach here. Utah has enough cap space to make things interesting, the club currently sitting with just under $13 million, per PuckPedia. Amid his third straight go-round of being traded away, would the potential of joining a new franchise that would celebrate and appreciate his arrival move the needle for Hamilton?
Carolina Hurricanes
Given their recent history in the trade market, the Canes have to be considered when a notable name becomes available (as does Vegas, but the Golden Knights’ recent acquisition of Rasmus Andersson would suggest they’re likely out of the running in this case). There is, of course, some history here — Hamilton played three seasons in a Canes sweater before joining the Devils. But the 32-year-old performed well for Carolina during his time with the organization, particularly in his final year with the club, which saw him collect 42 points in 55 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season — a showing that earned Hamilton fourth place among that year’s Norris vote-getters.
The Canes did offer Hamilton an eight-year deal on the heels of that performance back in 2021, but he chose the Devils, who offered a higher AAV. Would the two sides be open to a reunion? Carolina certainly seems to have a need on their right side. They have talent on the back end — Shayne Gostisbehere has led their blue-line offence of late, and rookie Alexander Nikishin is the club’s future — but after losing Brent Burns to free agency in the summer, there is arguably room for an upgrade on the Canes’ right side. What’s more, Carolina has plenty of cap space to work with — just over $17 million, per PuckPedia — while also ranking as a legit contender, currently sitting tied for tops in the East.
