Dougie Hamilton finds himself rated among the best defensemen in the last two decades

In a recent post on Twitter/X, the top fifteen defensemen in the NHL in terms of cumulative Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in the last 20 years were listed. As one would expect, the likes of Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, and Jared Spurgeon found themselves at the top of the list -- after all, they've been in the NHL for the vast majority of that time and are still going strong. Elsewhere are a couple of defensemen who have burst onto the scene in recent years and cemented themselves as perennial Norris Trophy candidates, like Cale Makar and Adam Fox.

At the bottom of the top-15 list, though, was a surprising name: Dougie Hamilton.

That's right, in a ranking of the 15 defensemen with the highest cumulative WAR since the statistic started tracking in 2007-08, the Devils' oft-scorned offensive defenseman made the cut. This comes despite Hamilton entering the league in 2012-13 -- he was one of just five defensemen on the list to log fewer than 1,000 games.

Dougie Hamilton remains criminally underrated

Unsurprisingly, most of Dougie's total WAR value of +20.64 came on the offensive side of the puck. In fact, he has the second-highest even-strength offensive impact (+11.64 WAR) of any defenseman in the analytics era, ranked eighth in power- play WAR (+3.12), and 12th in terms of value from his shot (+7.85). Even more surprisingly, perhaps, is the fact that Hamilton's total defensive WAR was positive -- his -0.05 even-strength defensive WAR was more than offset by his +0.20 WAR on the penalty kill.

Now, WAR is not a be-all and end-all statistic by any means, but it is certainly a strong measure of a player's overall impact on the game. Measuring things like individual skills and work ethic is certainly captured more accurately by the eye test, but the reality is that stats don't lie. They're not influenced by audio commentary or distractions from the game, et cetera, and are simply measured by the on-ice events of each and every game. As statistics have modernized, they have become only more accurate, especially on a public scale.

With that, it is again perhaps time that Hamilton is deserving of more respect than he has been given throughout his career. While 2025-26 was most certainly his best defensive season to date -- he was a superb two-way rearguard in terms of his statistical impact -- he was arguably the best offensive defenseman in the league at his peak. Though he isn't the #1 defenseman he once was, Dougie is still a more-than-viable offensive option for New Jersey entering 2026-27 and is still a top-pair caliber blueliner.

To boot, regardless of what one's eyes tell you, he has improved his two-way game tremendously and is now a net positive on the defensive side of the puck.

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