He's a stud, and is only going to get better. It takes time to adjust to a new team, especially when you're young and it's your first time getting traded. People seemed to also forget that he's only 22. Tough start, but knew he would come around. Now that he's comfortable, he's been great.
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If he keeps improving likens ha recently that blueline will be as deadly as we hoped. Gio-Brodie appear to be back to their dominant selves. Dougie was a beast on the Bruins PP last year hopefully he can help the Flames improve theirs.
Really happy with how he is improving and is on a nice trajectory
Hartley still giving him low minutes though. Last night he played significantly less (17 minutes) than Brodie (29 minutes), Gio (27 minutes) and Russell (25 minutes).
Hartley's definitely trying to help him get his confidence back. I hope he can handle a heavier workload as we get deeper in the season.
He just needed some time to adjust to the Flames style of play. He is looking like the Stud we thought he was on draft day. Plus looks like he fits in damn well with the team. That Christmas video everyone seemed to be having a BLAST! uppity loner, pfffftt. BS.
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I'm just shocked it took a young defenseman a quarter season to adjust to a new team/system. Except shocked is the exact opposite of the word I mean.
I'm ashamed of the posts I was reading early in the season here.
Frankly it was quite embarrassing to read some of the stuff that was being posted about him. Those posters know who they are and I hope they are enjoying the taste of crow right about now. Funny how they've disappeared from criticizing him recently
Trade him for Hamonic, what a joke that would have been. Best part was reading from Bruin's fans about how happy they were he was gone. Sure buddy....how's that looking now? Enjoy the magic beans!
And he's only 22! What a core we have now.
Johnny - 22
Monahan - 21
Bennett - 19
Brodie - 25
Hamilton - 22
You kind of forget that he's only 22 years old when you watch this team play game after game. Every defensemen on this team looked bad early in the season when the team was out of sorts but since things have stabilized he's fit in the top 4 like a veteran. Thing is that he's still only 22 years old and he's probably five years away from his prime. Hard not to be excited about where his game can be in a few more years.
With every passing game he's looking more and more like a true number one defenseman, just so smooth and effective in the offensive zone. Just absolute goofball things were said about him and that trade earlier this season. I'd say "in retrospect" but I'd like to think most rational hockey watchers understood there'd be major struggles in changing teams, playing styles and conferences for a young player.
I truly believe this will be looked back on as one of the best/most important trades in franchise history one day. Especially with the way Brad recognized that the NHL has grown to a league where you rarely get star players in trades anymore and did what it took to get him.
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Starting to look as advertised. People that gave up on him so early this season will be eating lots of crow. and heres the kicker, we have him for 6 more years for 5.75mill.
Why would anyone give up on someone so young with only a few games into the season?
He's a franchise D who Calgary stole.
That contract is a steal. Sinden recently admitted Boston could have signed him. They lied about everything.
I think part of the problem was that Brodie's injury forced the Flames to use Hamilton as a top pairing defenseman, something he wasn't ready for. Since he started playing on the second pairing, he's looked much better and has developed some good chemistry with Russell.
Unlike forwards, very few defensemen are elite players at 22 (even those who go on to become elite NHLers). If Hamilton continues to improve over the next year or two, he should be a bargain for the last 3-4 years of his contract.
Yeah, our struggles early on in the season were compounded on here by some of the remarks made about Dougie. Negativity and the doling out of blame is inevitable when things aren't going well, but with him in particular, it seemed so over the top to be characterizing the trade as a mistake, or that Hamilton isn't who we thought he was.
