Could The Anaheim Ducks Go After Bruins RFA Dougie Hamilton?
The Boston Bruins are in trouble. They missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years and it led to reconstruction at the top of the organization.
It started with the Bruins firing general manager Peter Chiarelli and the madness continued as the fate of head coach Claude Julien had not been decided upon until just recently when the team finally announced that Julien will be back behind the bench for the 2015-2016 season. This is just the beginning of their troubles however.
The Bruins are in a financial tornado as they have a number of decisions to make about some very key players. The salary cap is set to be around the $70-72 million mark next season which would mean the Bruins only have somewhere in the ballpark of $10 million in cap space. $10 million isn’t terrible but when you look at the players hitting free agency for Boston, you realize they are going to need a master plan to overcome this crunch.
Notable Forward Free Agents:
Brett Connoly (RFA), Gregory Campbell, Dan Paille, Carl Soderberg and Ryan Spooner (RFA)
Notable Defensive Free Agents:
Matt Bartkowski, Adam McQuaid and Dougie Hamilton (RFA)
Let’s not forget that another fantastic young Boston blue-liner, Torey Krug, needs a new contract next summer making this all that much more hectic.
Boston has already decided that they will not re-sign Carl Soderberg which takes one of the forwards off of that list. Now comes the tough part, what to do about Dougie Hamilton.
Anaheim Ducks
Dougie Hamilton is one of the best young blue liners in the league at just 21 years old and his agents have made it clear that they are seeking a Drew Doughty type of deal, something in the $6-7 million per year range. If Boston offers Hamilton this type of deal that will leave them with even more headaches than they already have. The only thing that could potentially save the Bruins is Hamilton’s free agent status as a restricted free agent as opposed to an unrestricted free agent.
What does this mean? It simply means that Hamilton’s entry level 3 year deal is expiring and any team who wishes to sign Hamilton will have to extend an offer sheet. This means that if any team offers Dougie a $7 million dollar per year contract then the Bruins have the opportunity to match and Hamilton would remain a Bruin if they match the offer sheet. If Boston does not match that offer sheet then Hamilton is free to sign with that other team and the Bruins would receive a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick as compensation from the team that signs Hamilton.
For a team that is heavily cap crunched like Boston, letting Hamilton go might be in their best interest. Not to mention with the new look front office in Boston, adding 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks may be appealing to new Bruins GM Don Sweeney.
Offer sheets are very rare however and the last player to sign an offer sheet was former Anaheim Ducks forward, Dustin Penner, in 2007.
So what if the Anaheim Ducks were to look into this situation and set their sights on acquiring Dougie Hamilton?
The Ducks have a good financial situation right now as they are set to have around $18 million in cap space.
Let’s say they re-sign Matt Beleskey for somewhere around $4 million per year. That drops their cap space near the $13-14 million dollar range. What if they were to trade James Wisniewski? Wisniewski’s cap hit is just a shy over $1 million next year but he has 2 years remaining on his 6 year $33 million dollar deal and his cap hit grows drastically over the next 2 seasons. A lot to pay for a guy who appears to be Boudreau’s 7th defensemen. The final piece of the puzzle could be letting Francois Beauchemin walk away in free agency.
If all 3 pieces to this puzzle occur (or something close to this scenario occurs) then the Ducks could be looking at around $13-15 million in cap space (They have to re-sign restricted free agent Jakob Silfverberg as well).
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The free agent market is not overly compelling and if the Ducks want to add a top pairing defensemen, which they need to do, then it would likely have to come from a trade anyway.
So, if the Ducks extend an offer sheet to Hamilton, that puts them at around the $6-8 million mark when it comes to cap space for next season. They have room to add a mid to low tier free agent and a trade is still very possible from a financial standpoint.
Yes, the Ducks would have to give up likely 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks but that could be more favorable than a trade to acquire Hamilton which would likely have Boston asking for Hampus Lindholm, Cam Fowler or Jakob Silfverberg in return. Bob Murray would likely shut that one down
It’s a situation where the rewards of the offer sheet may outweigh the rewards of a trade if the Ducks want Dougie Hamilton.
The only reason it may not happen
The Ducks have a nice cap situation at the moment but they have a number of players who hit free agency next summer. Ryan Kesler, Hampus Lindholm, Freddie Andersen, John Gibson, Kyle Palmieri, Simon Despres, Rickard Rakell, Sami Vatanen and Jiri Sekac all need new contracts after this upcoming season. Yes, 8 of the 9 will be restricted free agents but it will still be a difficult process to sign all of them.
Still, the thought of Dougie Hamilton in a Ducks jersey is intriguing. Imagine if the Ducks top defensive pairing consisted of 21 year old’s Hampus Lindholm and Dougie Hamilton (A left and right handed shot by the way). Two guys who are on the path to becoming top tier elite NHL defensemen. The second pairing of Fowler and Despres stays intact while Stoner and Vatanen round out the third pairing. That gives the Ducks five incredible defensemen all under the age of 24, a blue line set up for a ton of future success.
Clearly offer sheets are a confusing thing to understand, but the Ducks have the money and the compensation picks to pull this one off. Future financials would need to be looked at, but again the rewards may outweigh every possible risk.
This would be the steal of the century and if there is one general manager who could pull this off it would be reigning NHL general manager of the year, Ducks GM Bob Murray.
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