Dougie Hamilton - Was there more to this trade than meets the eye?

[Vinny01]

I have been on the trade Hamilton front since the end of the season. I don’t think he is a bad guy and I think he is a great player but something didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t point my finger on it but I never saw him anchoring the blueline for years to come despite elite numbers and metrics.

I am happy with the deal they made and feel the team will be better for this deal long term.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Wish Hamilton well, he is a great player and was giving everything he had down the stretch, including a goal scoring /points streak. If that's not what we want in our "winning culture" then I really question the rest of the core / management.

Giving everything he had? Yeah in the offensive zone. Don't recall him often giving everything he had in the defensive zone. There is two ends of the ice and Hamilton's compete level was vastly different in the one end vs the other. Gio is a player who gives everything he has in his own zone.

[rustycana]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

There have already been stories on CP about how Dougie wanted to go to museums on the road and guys wanted to go to Moxies. If Dougie always wanted to do smart things and nobody wanted to do smart things with him, it probably lead to some friction in the locker room.

In any event, one would think professional athletes should be able to get along with each other, it is pretty disappointing if the reason we traded a true stud dman was because the dressing room was divided.

To be fair, I would choose a museum over eating at Moxies too

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Giving everything he had? Yeah in the offensive zone. Don't recall him often giving everything he had in the defensive zone. There is two ends of the ice and Hamilton's compete level was vastly different in the one end vs the other. Gio is a player who gives everything he has in his own zone.

This. I was never overly impressed with Hamilton in the defensive zone. His play there is pretty uninspiring on most nights.

He's a talented guy for sure and I am not so sure that all the peripheral talk about him being a snob is warranted or justified. I think the bottom line is that the Flames think they need a different type of player instead.

I'm not overly confident that this trade saw us receive maximum value, but there is no way it's all doom and gloom. We got back 2 decent players with likely untapped upside. I just wish that Ferland wasn't involved. I would rather him not be on the 1st line, but he would have been a valuable depth winger considering how shallow we are on the right.

[Azure]

Its not about the type of person he was, or that he went to do this while the other team went to do something completely different. If you are going to be part of the 'core' for a team going forward, you have to be committed as a leader to drive everything forward.

You have 23 guys who all have to be committed to going in the same direction. This is not a Walmart 9-5 job where you could just slack off and do your own thing. These players are being paid millions of dollars at something where they would be considered the upper tier of ANYONE in the world. All that entails that you have to be committed to going above and beyond in order to be successful.

If someone is not committing to team dinners, extra effort at practice, no drive to win, not caring about losing, etc, etc.....it doesn't make them a BAD player or a BAD person, but it does create a problem when the other 20 guys care about all those things.

Everyone is saying 'oh he doesn't have to be involved in everything like the team dinners' but I beg to differ. Those of us in the 'real' world can skip those team dinners, but when you get paid $6 million per season, a certain level of commitment is required.

Also very strange that people are saying 'oh all I care about is the on ice product' without realizing that the players spend 8 hours per day preparing for 20 min worth of ice team. That is a LOT of off-ice commitment.

[calumniate]

Dougie's 'coming to Calgary' interviews were a bit odd

[GranteedEV]

I'm not going to bash Dougie Hamilton, but what I won't miss is teams shooting right through his legs/stick to score empty netters because they know he won't block it. Even Wideman and Russell were more dependable with the goalie pulled.

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by rustycana

To be fair, I would choose a museum over eating at Moxies too

I would rather EAT at a museum...

[CSharp]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

Francis’ article this morning says flat out that Dougie wasn’t bothered by losses. Francis also says he was still upset about Freddie being waived. He just didn’t fit in with the other guys in the dressing room. We’ve been hearing these whispers for a long time now.

Francis makes up crap to be noticed. Don't be fooled by that idiot. Seriously.

[cannon7]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Giving everything he had? Yeah in the offensive zone. Don't recall him often giving everything he had in the defensive zone. There is two ends of the ice and Hamilton's compete level was vastly different in the one end vs the other. Gio is a player who gives everything he has in his own zone.

Hamilton was far from the Flames' worst d-man in their own zone. I can think of three guys on the Flames blueline who made me cringe many more times than Hamilton in their own zone this season. We're going to miss Hamilton's outlet pass, as he was very good at getting the puck out of the defensive zone quickly and accurately. Something Brodie's forgotten how to do.

Reason I bring up Burns is he was similarly traded prematurely and is now a top three d-man in the league. The Wild traded Burns for dubious reasons and didn't maximize his return.

[SportsJunky]

Fwiw, Arizona will not be sending Freddie Hamilton a qualifying offer today.

The Arizona Coyotes will send qualifying offers to six of their eight restricted free agents (Tucson Roadrunners included) before the 2 p.m. Arizona deadline on Monday, general manager John Chayka confirmed Sunday. The team will not send qualifying offers to forward Freddie Hamilton or goalie Sean Maguire. The Coyotes claimed Hamilton off waivers in January.

[rhino]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

Fwiw, Arizona will not be sending Freddie Hamilton a qualifying offer today.

So watch for a Freddie signing in Carolina then?

[Strange Brew]

Loubardias on 960 right now saying he heard an unconfirmed story that on media exit day, Dougie was "in a place he wasn't supposed to be".

Huh?

[rhino]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Loubardias on 960 right now saying he heard an unconfirmed story that on media exit day, Dougie was "in a place he wasn't supposed to be".

Huh?

What he said was Dougie was NOT where he was supposed to be.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by rhino

What he said was Dougie was NOT where he was supposed to be.

Right. What does that mean?

[soulchoice]

Originally Posted by rhino

What he said was Dougie was NOT where he was supposed to be.

Exactly this, I presume he was mentioning the Flames brass may not have been happy with him not speaking to the media after the end of the season exit meetings with the management/coaches.

[Royle9]

may correlate with the poster on here saying that he was down in Arizona with this brother faster than he should have been. It's not the first rumor to come out and confirm Dougie skipped out on end of seasons presser(interview)

[Travis Munroe]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Hamilton was far from the Flames' worst d-man in their own zone. I can think of three guys on the Flames blueline who made me cringe many more times than Hamilton in their own zone this season. We're going to miss Hamilton's outlet pass, as he was very good at getting the puck out of the defensive zone quickly and accurately. Something Brodie's forgotten how to do.

Reason I bring up Burns is he was similarly traded prematurely and is now a top three d-man in the league. The Wild traded Burns for dubious reasons and didn't maximize his return.

Dougie HAD to be traded this off seas to maximize his return. He wasn't happy with the organization and had a limited no trade claus kick in next year. Assuming we are gunning for playoffs, you aren't trading Dougie mid season and shaking things up.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by soulchoice

Exactly this, I presume he was mentioning the Flames brass may not have been happy with him not speaking to the media after the end of the season exit meetings with the management/coaches.

But the way Loubardias phrased it, saying that he heard unconfirmed reports. What you are saying is a fact.

[soulchoice]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

But the way Loubardias phrased it, saying that he heard unconfirmed reports. What you are saying is a fact.

Oh i get what you are saying, perhaps no one from the Flames have confirmed they were not happy with him skipping Media day. Hence the unconfirmed reports, but the idea is out there for the displeasure.