Maple Leafs Trade for Dougie Hamilton? Who’s Kidding Who?

Yesterday, there was news that the New Jersey Devils had let it be known that they would be willing to move the great offensive blueliner Dougie Hamilton. And, as it always happens, immediately, pundits linked that opportunity to the idea that the Toronto Maple Leafs could be going after him.

Get real, that idea doesn’t just seem wrong, it clashes with the very logic the team now claims to be following. It’s the same reason Quinn Hughes would never have fit with this team.

Let me lay this out logically.

---

The Way Hamilton Plays Speaks to the Heart of the Contradiction

Hamilton shows the contradiction. Fast, direct, instinctive. That’s his game. The Maple Leafs claim they want north-south hockey. Move the puck. Attack the net. Create chances. But the system doesn’t always let it happen. Hamilton proves it. In theory, when north-south hockey works, it can generate a ton of chances.

However, for one reason or another, the idea has now morphed into “don’t make mistakes” rather than a “push the pace” approach to playing. That’s turned into a low-event, risk-managed, structure-first philosophy. Fewer mistakes. Fewer rush chances against. Less chaos. More “responsible” hockey.

When You Get Dougie Hamilton. He’ll Play Like Dougie Hamilton

Now, think about Dougie Hamilton. As my mother used to say, if the word trouble-maker were in the dictionary, your picture would be by it. Hamilton is almost the very definition of a high-event defenseman. He shoots. He activates. Cheats offensively and stretches the play.

He deliberately gambles because he thinks he can beat you. And, because he is so good, he regularly does. If you have Hamilton on your team, you don’t want to quiet games down. You want him to do what he does better than almost anyone, and you live with the occasional problems.

He and the Edmonton Oilers’ Evan Bouchard are cut from the same colourful cloth. See, already, the philosophy is misaligned.

Hamilton Is a Tool that Doesn’t Match the Job

Hamilton does his best work when he’s free to move. Let him roam the blue line, let him push the pace, and he creates offence in ways that feel effortless. Sure, sometimes it leaves the other team with a chance to rush the other way. That’s the game. But that’s not the hockey Berube seems to want. He wants control. He wants structure. And Hamilton isn’t the kind of player you can hold down without losing something.

The Maple Leafs coaching staff is not rewarding risk right now. They are policing it and trying to put it away for life. Defensemen are told to hold lines, chip pucks safely, and avoid iffy reads. Forwards are coached to collapse low.

Creativity can only be tolerated when it succeeds instantly. A good pass travels 15 feet rather than 60. Given that structure and that coaching, Hamilton wouldn’t be a solution; he’d become a problem to be managed. And historically, when Hamilton is managed, his value drops.

Dougie Hamilton Is a Rumour That Reveals the Real Problem

The consideration of a Hamilton trade suggests that the Maple Leafs front office is shopping for solutions for the kind of team that doesn’t exist anymore. He would have worked with Sheldon Keefe as the coach, but not Berube. This then raises the question: If Keefe is the coach of the Devils, where Hamilton currently plays, why has he been put on the market?

In what universe would this Maple Leafs thinking prize Hamilton? The truth? This rumour is just noise, not a solution.

Related: A Blockbuster Elias Pettersson Trade Idea Has Canadiens Fans Talking