New Jersey Devils can't trade Dougie Hamilton, regardless of Luke Hughes injury

The New Jersey Devils could still opt to move on from star defenseman Dougie Hamilton, even after the Ondrej Palat trade and the injury to Luke Hughes, but the harsh reality is that dealing Hamilton now would be a terrible idea.

Since being benched ahead of a game against the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 10, Hamilton has scored a point in each of his last eight games, which, of course, doesn't include his assist against the Pittsburgh Penguins leading up to the benching.

While the 32-year-old's goal-scoring exploits have dried up, scoring just two times since the end of October, Hamilton is now tied with Brian Rafalski and Barry Beck for the longest point streak by a defenseman in franchise history, according to NHL PR.

To that end, Hamilton also has the longest active point streak in the entire NHL at the time of this writing, with superstars like David Pastrnak, Kirill Kaprizov, Nikita Kucherov, and Quinn Hughes close behind.

With Luke Hughes out, all of the offensive responsibility on an already struggling team has been placed on Hamilton's shoulders, and the vet is doing about as much as you could ask for with the limited tools he has to work with on the ice.

Since returning from an injury of his own, youngster Simon Nemec has one goal (an overtime winner, to be fair) and one assist in his last eight games.

Aside from him and Hamilton, the Devils do not have any other defensemen on the roster capable of providing offense or otherwise moving the puck at a high level.

It's unclear how the marriage between Hamilton and the Devils ends, particularly if he is still on the roster by the offseason, but it has become very clear that the Devils are in no position to let Hamilton go just for the sake of clearing cap space, especially now that he's taken his level of performance up a few notches.