This is nothing more than Friedman doing the Flames and Dougie Hamilton a favour and publishing thoughts that make this sound like it was a hockey trade.
Is there any indication that he didn't act like a professional about it?
Well being unhappy about it seemed to ruffle some feathers so maybe some indications of that behind the scenes - was he being too vocal in the locker room about not getting enough PP ice time. Personally don't see an indication of that but IMO it's not really embarrassing either for the Flames or Hamilton - just part of the job.
I do think overall that something was just sour with this relationship...and it never seemed to fully work from day 1.
Hartley didn't really use him or trust him in season one, then there were already rumblings of the Flames moving on from him that offseason but about 20 games into 16-17 season he was paired with Gio and that pairing was elite so the rumblings quieted down.
However this organization never did really trust him as much as they did Gio and Brodie. Very little 3v3 OT ice time, was never trusted to be the 1D on the 4FWD 1D powerplay, and for the last season and a half of his time here was exclusively on the ice with Gio as the coaching staffs "security blanket".
Personally I think that was the coaching staff/GMs mistake since IMO they should have never been worried about him in that way but for whatever reason him and the organization never seemed to fully click.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 06-25-2018 at 09:38 AM.
If Gio was going to be reunited with Brodie regardless Dougie could have taken thst in stride and aimed to make whichever partner he was paired with the top pair.
Dougie gets ripped both times when leaving town but seems like a lot more people coming to his defense this time around. Again not convinced he is a problem but it is clear management didn’t think he was the right fit so both sides have moved on
I'll just make one comment about the off-ice stuff, and by no means is it a conclusion about the player's personality, just speculation. I'll save the hockey talk for the official trade thread.
I thought it was borderline egregious the Flames brought in Freddie in an apparent attempt to placate or appease Dougie. Freddie had no place on that team, and the fact that they kept shoehorning him in made it feel indeed like it was only to make Dougie happy. If he has that much of a "unique" personality that he HAS to have his brother around or he becomes disgruntled, that is enough for me as a GM to explore a trade.
Again, this is speculation for me and not fact, but if it was true, I would look to move on from the player for that reason.
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If Gio was going to be reunited with Brodie regardless Dougie could have taken thst in stride and aimed to make whichever partner he was paired with the top pair.
Dougie gets ripped both times when leaving town but seems like a lot more people coming to his defense this time around. Again not convinced he is a problem but it is clear management didn’t think he was the right fit so both sides have moved on
Agree with this - if they want to pair those two up again then go play with Stone, Hamonic, Kulak, whoever and show that you are just as elite with them.
Kessel is the perfect example - he went to Pittsburgh and ended up playing with Nick Bonino instead of Malkin or Crosby for much of his first season there. What did he do? IMO he was the MVP of their playoff run, as a big part of the HBK line.
I actually disagree about "role" being the problem here though...I think the bigger problem here though was "trust" and "respect".
I feel like Hamilton felt disrespected and was always second fiddle to Gio and Brodie in the organization - didnt' get the PP time handed to him, very little 3v3 ice time, and would get scapegoated more for his mistakes than the other two. And for whatever reason this organization just never seemed to fully trust Hamilton on the ice which led to the aforementioned ice time issues.
Overall it just doesn't seem like Hamilton or the organization were ever really a fit or saw eye to eye.
Well being unhappy about it seemed to ruffle some feathers so maybe some indications of that behind the scenes - was he being too vocal in the locker room about not getting enough PP ice time. Personally don't see an indication of that but IMO it's not really embarrassing either for the Flames or Hamilton - just part of the job.
I do think overall that something was just sour with this relationship...and it never seemed to fully work from day 1.
Hartley didn't really use him or trust him in season one, then there were already rumblings of the Flames moving on from him that offseason but about 20 games into 16-17 season he was paired with Gio and that pairing was elite so the rumblings quieted down.
However this organization never did really trust him as much as they did Gio and Brodie. Very little 3v3 OT ice time, was never trusted to be the 1D on the 4FWD 1D powerplay, and for the last season and a half of his time here was exclusively on the ice with Gio as the coaching staffs "security blanket".
Personally I think that was the coaching staff/GMs mistake since IMO they should have never been worried about him in that way but for whatever reason him and the organization never seemed to fully click.
I 100% saw why both Hartley and Gulutzan didn't completely trust him, I would've done the exact same thing. The thing with Dougie is that he's an outstanding goal scorer, but his defensive game was a mess with out Gio. I don't care what the analytic numbers say.
The eye test, the GM, the multiple coaching staffs, they all didn't fully trust him for good reason. His goal totals will certainly be missed, but his constant parade to the penalty box and penchant for getting beat one on one and to the net won't be.
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This is nothing more than Friedman doing the Flames and Dougie Hamilton a favour and publishing thoughts that make this sound like it was a hockey trade.
I thought it was borderline egregious the Flames brought in Freddie in an apparent attempt to placate or appease Dougie. Freddie had no place on that team, and the fact that they kept shoehorning him in made it feel indeed like it was only to make Dougie happy.
Just to piggyback your point a little bit here - not only were they trying to shoehorn him into the lineup which was bad enough, they used a roster spot on him that could have gone to a young guy busting his butt to get up with the big club.
They essentially took a spot away from a deserving player so Freddie could serve as a roommate/driver.
I 100% saw why both Hartley and Gulutzan didn't completely trust him, I would've done the exact same thing. The thing with Dougie is that he's an outstanding goal scorer, but his defensive game was a mess with out Gio. I don't care what the analytic numbers say.
The eye test, the GM, the multiple coaching staffs, they all didn't fully trust him for good reason. His goal totals will certainly be missed, but his constant parade to the penalty box and penchant for getting beat one on one and to the net won't be.
I actually don't disagree but we really never got to see if that is truly the case and that he couldn't play without Giordano.
He played such limited time without Giordano over the last 140 games that I'm not too sure how much of the improved play of that pairing is due to them playing together or his growth as a d-man.
I actually worry that a shift occurred at some point over the last two years where Hamilton started to carry more of the load on that pairing but we wouldn't know it since GG never separated them.
Lou on Hockey Central saying it without saying it...Hamilton hurt chemistry in the dressing room.
In the end Lou's end of season interview on the Fan was telling.
He's not one who ever trashes players, especially good ole' canadian kids who played junior here, but he really threw Hamilton under the bus during that interview.
Probably should have been the first sign that those close to and within the organization had really soured on the guy.
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