Can the New Jersey Devils survive this season without Dougie Hamilton?

Rumors are swirling that the New Jersey Devils are shopping top defenseman Dougie Hamilton. This late in the offseason, it would be hard to replace his production. Could the Devils even survive the season without him?
New Jersey Devils v Washington Capitals
New Jersey Devils v Washington Capitals | G Fiume/GettyImages

The New Jersey Devils have done some nice business this offseason, upgrading the bottom six with the signings of Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov, and re-signing Jake Allen to an insane contract worth just $1.8 million per season. It was a nice piece of business for Tom Fitzgerald, who fixed some of the biggest issues with the team and brought back the best goalie on the market for a reasonable deal. 

Unfortunately for the Devils, “nice” isn’t good enough. The Devils need something better than that to compete in the Eastern Conference. It’s one thing to keep making the playoffs and petering out in the first or second round. It takes a completely different team to compete with the teams that make it out of the Atlantic Division. 

The Devils haven’t been able to upgrade the team that much this offseason. It’s definitely better, but the team is pretty set unless they make multiple moves. For one, they need to clear out salary. The most important move of the offseason is signing Luke Hughes to a long-term deal. They can’t do much else until that’s done because they only have a little more than $6 million in cap space. Hughes is going to take up all of that and then some

To make more moves, the Devils have to move out some salary. They already moved Erik Haula for a fourth-round pick. That was step one. The belief is the Devils are trying to move Ondrej Palat’s $6 million cap hit, but that’s clearly proving to be harder than expected. With a partial no-trade clause and a no-move clause, the Devils’ options are limited. They could also trade Dawson Mercer, but they will likely lose any Mercer trade

That leaves Dougie Hamilton. The star defenseman has been the most prevalent Devils player in trade rumors

New Jersey Devils will have a rough season without Dougie Hamilton

Of course, the Devils would love to shed $9 million in salaries and spend that on upgrades, especially at forward. Unfortunately, that doesn’t come without its issues. Hamilton is a really good defenseman, which is why he got $9 million per season in the first place. 

The Devils have a ready-made replacement in Simon Nemec. The former second-overall pick salvaged his season in the playoffs and has earned an NHL spot. Last offseason, the Devils gave Brett Pesce a long-term deal. Then, at the trade deadline, the Devils decided to extend Johnny Kovacevic. Not even including Seamus Casey, the Devils have too many right-handed defensemen. 

It’s not even like they can push one on their off hand. The Devils have Hughes, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Brenden Dillon playing the other side of the ice. 

So, it seems like now is the best time to trade Hamilton. One small issue there. We know for a fact that Kovacevic is going to miss the beginning of the season. How long he will be out is still a mystery. He suffered a major knee injury in the playoffs. 

If his injury is indeed what’s been rumored (a torn ACL), then he will probably miss months. We might not see him until January or February. 

The depth for defense is still weak in New Jersey. They did re-sign Dennis Cholowski, but he wasn’t necessarily a full-time NHL guy. We mentioned Casey before, but he had issues on the defensive end last season.

Trading Hamilton would leave a hole in the Devils’ lineup that’s almost impossible to fill. When Kovacevic is back, and if he’s 100 percent, it won’t hurt as much. But where will they be at that point? It’s a scary position to put the team in. 

If the team has no choice or if they get a really good offer for Hamilton, moving him is on the table. However, it shouldn’t be done just to get the cap space because it’s easier.