A history of Flames numbers: #27, Dougie Hamilton

This time about 13 months ago, the Flames were in need of another top four defenceman. There were some about to be available in the free agent market, but instead, Brad Treliving went in a completely different direction: acquiring then-22-year-old Dougie Hamilton from the Boston Bruins for draft picks. It was instantly a vastly superior option, because he was about five years younger than pretty much everyone else who would have been available.

He fit perfectly into the rebuild. And it worked out well, because his #27 had recently become available a few months before Calgary acquired him.

D.Ham is the 19th player in Flames franchise history to wear #27:

As of late, the number has gone to 2011 first round draft picks, defencemen, or both. D.Ham is the fifth defenceman for the Flames to wear the number. He’s pretty much always worn it, so this has worked out well. 

Savard very well could be the best player on this list – and it’s awful his career was cut short, and disappointing that he couldn’t stay a Flame any longer than he did – but Vail and Tonelli had really good careers, too, as did Beers in his admittedly shorter career. Vail stayed with the Flames for nearly a decade, even if most of it was in Atlanta.

As far as defencemen go, D.Ham is already the best one of the bunch. Only Staios has scored more than him, but that’s over, like, 700-something more games, so it really isn’t a contest. As far as points per game go, he’s seventh among this group, and the first just under .500.