2. Dougie Hamilton's return from injury
Back when Dougie Hamilton first suffered his torn pectoral muscle, many were optimistic that he would make a full recovery. He is relatively young still (31 years old), and it shouldn’t be at that point where his body starts to fail him. However, this is a different kind of injury.
In our reaction piece to Hamilton’s injury, we went through the history of defensemen who have suffered a similar injury. The scariest example is Matt Dumba. He suffered a torn pec in December 2018. Since then, he’s gone from double-digit goals every year and a 50-point ceiling to struggling to hit 25 points. Last season, he had 12 points.
This is the scariest reality here. What if Hamilton feels fine but he isn’t the same? The problem here is that so much of Hamilton’s offensive ability comes from his incredible shot. There are few, if any, defensemen who can hit the puck like Hamilton with force and accuracy. If that isn’t at that same level, which it likely won’t be, then the Devils have a $9 million problem.
Hamilton does bring other elements to the table outside his shot. He’s still a supreme offensive creator, but losing the shot really hurts. This also impacts the shoulder, which could lead to further re-injury, but we won’t discuss that further as it’s more of a hypothetical.