The Dougie Hamilton saga may have quieted down after Luke Hughes was injured earlier this week, but it’s definitely not over. There will be teams calling about Hamilton, especially now that he’s been playing much better. When he was benched, it was due to on-ice performance (at least, that was the narrative).
The most prevalent trade rumor is the one tying him to the Toronto Maple Leafs. We’ve been banging the drum for the Maple Leafs-Hamilton connection for months, with our first article on the subject coming out in June. Later in the summer, we ranked the Maple Leafs as the second most likely trade option behind the Utah Mammoth.
Both teams are still in the mix for Hamilton, as multiple reports state. The Maple Leafs just lost the return game of Mitch Marner, and the fanbase is frustrated. We could see brass in Toronto making a move to change the narrative and set themselves up for the rest of the season and playoff push. What would a trade look like?
Trade #1
This is one of those “everyone says no,” so we think it’s actually possible. Every Devils fan will hate turning Dougie Hamilton into Morgan Rielly, who has a longer contract but is abjectly worse (especially if the recent version of Hamilton is real). However, Easton Cowan and Nick Robertson would completely revamp the bottom six now and in the future. With the early success of Arseny Gritsyuk and Lenni Hameenaho, mixed with the additions of Cowan and Robertson, would equal a positive move forward for the Devils.
Rielly might just need a change of scenery, too. He was once considered a top-15 defenseman in the league. We don’t think he’ll ever hit 20 goals again, but if he can match the offensive impact of Dougie Hamilton while playing next to, say, Johnny Kovacevic, it would be very valuable. And if he’s just as bad as he’s been, then the Devils can bury him and buy him out at the end of the season for $3.5 million against the cap for four years then $2 million for four years after that.
That’s a rough price to pay, which is why we ultimately think this one doesn’t work, but it’s one we wanted to promote. It’s incredibly hard for both the Devils and Maple Leafs to make this work. Maybe the Devils could once again flip Rielly, but that’s a huge risk. We just need to discuss this because Hamilton for Rielly is the easiest way to upgrade for the Leafs cap-wise.
Trade #2
Nic Roy was a 13-15 goal guy for most of his career with the Vegas Golden Knights. He’s on pace for about seven this season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was the main piece coming back in the Mitch Marner “trade” with the Knights. Obviously, the Knights could have just signed Marner for free in free agency, but they would have been limited to a seven-year contract and would have had to move money.
Roy is a good bounce-back candidate, but he has pretty negative value right now. Max Domi is a good player who is playing way above his head with Toronto. He has 24 points in 49 games, yet, he’s paired with Auston Matthews. It’s very strange times in Toronto. The Devils would still need to retain between $1 million and $1.5 million to make this deal work, which is why the next move makes sense.
The Devils could bolster their center depth while getting something positive from the Hamilton return. They would need to get a piece for the future. That’s where Dennis Hildeby comes in. The Leafs have leaned on Hildeby this season with injuries to Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll at different times. He’s been incredible, putting up a .912 save percentage in 19 games played. Nico Daws would give the Leafs a player who would be a safety net for the goaltender position.
Again, it’s not a great trade. The Leafs having basically no draft capital makes them a really bad fit. That is, unless we do something huge.
My goodness, we’re losing the plot here, but stick with us for just a bit. If the Toronto Maple Leafs want a change to the core after not seeing positive momentum following Mitch Marner’s departure, then the one that makes the most sense to move is William Nylander. He’s been fine this year, but he hasn’t lived up to his contract and has been criticized by the head coach.
Meanwhile, the Devils can get that final dynamic piece to the top six without spending a fortune. They give up Anton Silayev, who the Devils got with the 10th-overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, but we’re sure Tom Fitzgerald would love to never hear the names Zeev Buium, Jason Dickinson, and Konsta Helenius ever again. Maybe the Leafs demand a first-round pick to make the deal work, but we don’t see the Devils giving that up. Maybe they’d do a 2027 first instead, since the Leafs don’t have that one, either.
This would allow the Leafs to retain certain assets to possibly approach the Dallas Stars for Jason Robertson or the St. Louis Blues for Robert Thomas. One would argue that the Devils should just go after those players, instead, but neither team would lose them for this particular package.
At the end of the day, none of these packages makes a ton of sense. We’ve looked at everything to make it work 1-1 between the Devils and Leafs, and these are the best we could do. We don’t know if anyone is happy with any of these, except maybe the Devils getting Nylander. At the end of the day, other teams probably make more sense as a Hamilton trade partner.