Hey Toronto, it’s time to shut up about Dougie Hamilton
By Ari Yanover
7 years agoThe Toronto Maple Leafs are in town tonight. I’m sure you’re as thrilled with the completely nonsensical 6:30 p.m. start time as you are with these moronic Dougie Hamilton trade rumours that simply won’t die.
Let’s talk about the latter.
I’m just going to link to a couple of tweets here, because they pretty much sum up what’s going on. They’re referenced from a Darren Dreger chat the morning of Nov. 29 about whether or not the Leafs could be in on Hamilton.
And one more thing, transcribed from Pro Hockey Rumors:
I asked Brad Treliving point blank yesterday if he had anything going on with the Toronto Maple Leafs. I didn’t suggest Hamilton, I just said anything. His response was: ’Nothing. Zero.’
Have we got that cleared up now? Good. This is solely a media-perpetuated trade suggestion that the centre of the universe has taken and won’t stop running with. And why wouldn’t they? The Leafs are a rebuilding team in need of help on the backend.
Wait, am I talking about the Leafs or the Flames here?
Trading Hamilton doesn’t make sense, point blank
I’m not going to espouse on the virtues of Hamilton here. I’ve done that enough already. What I’m going to talk about here is how the Flames flat out cannot afford to lose him at this juncture.
The Flames’ defence is a mess, and will likely remain so for the rest of this season. That’s in large part due to bad contracts, particularly as Deryk Engelland and Dennis Wideman are still able to play. (Sorry, Ladislav Smid.) Hell, Wideman is currently being used as a top four defenceman, despite pretty much everything in the world indicating he absolutely should not be.
You trade Hamilton? Not only does Wideman stay a top four defenceman, but the way Glen Gulutzan has deployed his defence pairings over the course of this season, Engelland probably joins him.
Right now, the Flames have:
Giordano – Hamilton
Brodie – Wideman
If Hamilton goes, they’ll probably have:
Giordano – Wideman
Brodie – Engelland
Yeah, I’m just as horrified by that as you are. The Flames already have an incomplete top four, and somehow they’re supposed to fix that by trading away one of their good defencemen? And one of their youngest and biggest, at that? Sure thing guys. Totally see the logic there.
And as Jacob Stoller put it: “the only player the Calgary Flames should be seeking in a trade for Dougie Hamilton, is Dougie Hamilton.“
Sorry, James van Riemsdyk doesn’t really fix anything, thanks though
Leafs fans have been trying to figure out a somewhat decent trade package they could propose in order to acquire Hamilton. In doing that, James van Riemsdyk’s name has come up a lot.
If that’s the premier piece the Leafs can offer, then sorry, but no.
Van Riemsdyk is not a bad player. What he is, however, is a 27-year-old left wing who has only had two 50+ point seasons in his career. He’s four years older than Hamilton, and to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hamilton is outscoring him within a year or two.
Yes, the Flames are short on quality wingers. No, they are not short on quality left wingers. Van Riemsdyk probably slots in behind Johnny Gaudreau. Then there’s Matthew Tkachuk and Micheal Ferland, and Sam Bennett, too, if he ends up staying on the wing for whatever reason. It’s the right side that’s decimated, not the left. Van Riemsdyk does not address the Flames’ needs in the slightest.
Oh, and please don’t bring up 30-year-old centre Tyler Bozak. A rebuilding team is not trading a 23-year-old for a 30-year-old. If the Flames are looking to fix their issues down the middle – a middle that, at present, has Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Mikael Backlund, Matt Stajan, Freddie Hamilton, Mark Jankowski, Linden Vey for a bit, honestly guys they’re making centres play on the wing there is no shortage of options here – then I’d expect Monahan to be the catalyst for that deal. And again: not for a 30-year-old.
And before you start: no, nobody really cares about Peter Holland.
You want to talk trading for Hamilton? Start talking Morgan Rielly.
“But that defeats the purpose of trading for Hamilton – the Leafs need defence; trading away their top young guy doesn’t improve them.”
And as detailed above, it’s the same thing for the Flames.
Brad Treliving isn’t an idiot
This might be news to several, but Brian Burke is not the Calgary Flames’ GM. Brad Treliving is. Here’s the list of trades he’s conducted over that time:
- Brandon Bollig for a third round pick
- Drew Shore for Corban Knight
- Second and third round picks for Curtis Glencross
- Second round pick (Rasmus Andersson) for Sven Baertschi
- Dougie Hamilton for a first round pick and two seconds
- Second round pick (Oliver Kylington) for two thirds
- Conditional fourth round pick (conditions not met) for Max Reinhart
- Freddie Hamilton for a conditional seventh round pick (conditions not met)
- Kevin Poulin for future considerations (whatever these are, I don’t think they’re going to be a thing)
- Hunter Shinkaruk for Markus Granlund
- A second round pick (Tyler Parsons) and a fourth rounder for Jiri Hudler
- Jyrki Jokipakka, Brett Pollock, and a second round pick (Dillon Dube) for Kris Russell (and that pick was one win away from being a first rounder)
- Niklas Backstrom and a sixth round pick (Matthew Phillips) for David Jones
- Brian Elliott for a second round pick (Jordan Kyrou) and a conditional third
- Alex Chiasson for Patrick Sieloff
Among those trades, which, exactly, looks like a GM that got fleeced? The Bollig one, aka the first one of his career, and… that’s about it? This is a GM who has acquired picks for players who were out of the league the very next season (Glencross, Jones at this point). And since the Bollig thing, his one-for-ones have been pure upgrades, or minor lateral moves at absolute worst.
And you’re going to somehow fleece this guy? Trades are probably the thing Treliving is best at.
Two can play this game
But where there’s smoke there’s fire, you say? So Toronto and Calgary are definitely going to make a trade?
Cool. How about a top four defenceman for a fourth line centre? Dennis Wideman for William Nylander sounds more than fair to me.
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