According to a new report from The Fourth Period, the Toronto Maple Leafs are interested in acquiring Dougie Hamilton from the New Jersey Devils. There is some ambiguity in the reasoning behind the report, though it stands to reason that the Maple Leafs could benefit from a defenseman of Hamilton’s archetype.
To start, the report expands on a report from David Pagnotta last month, articulating that Toronto is scouring the trade market for a puck-moving defenseman. The principal expansion came from TSN’s Pierre LeBrun segment on Insider Trading yesterday, indicating that the Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes would be ideal fits for the 32-year-old blue liner.
Being an ideal fit doesn’t necessarily mean that Toronto is actively engaging in conversations with New Jersey regarding Hamilton, though signs are pointing in that direction. The Maple Leafs have also been connected to Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson, who plays a similar style to Hamilton. For what it’s worth, in terms of their similarity scores, which are devised by point shares, Hamilton is nearly identical in value to retired defenseman P.K. Subban.
Still, there are a few hangups with Hamilton being traded to the Maple Leafs. For starters, Hamilton has a 10-team trade list (effectively a 21-team no-trade list), and there’s no indication that Toronto is on there. Hamilton’s agent, J.P. Barry, stated last week that they were open to broadening that list for the right opportunity. If he has any desire to play for a playoff-caliber team, the Maple Leafs serve as a better option in that regard for the time being.
Furthermore, the major sticking point is that Hamilton is owed a $9MM salary through the 2027-28 campaign. That’s not something that Toronto will easily be able to absorb. They would likely need the Devils to retain in some fashion, and they may be unwilling to do so since the whole point of moving Hamilton is to clear salary off the roster. Still, there is an argument to be made that retaining some of Hamilton’s salary will be less than what they are paying him now, effectively getting what they want, just not to the degree they had hoped for.
Technically, the Maple Leafs could get there, but they would likely need to place defenseman Chris Tanev on the LTIR, which would open up approximately $3.8MM in room. Additionally, if a forward like Matias Maccelli ($3.425MM) went to New Jersey in the hypothetical swap, Toronto could get close to making it work.
Among the reasons why Toronto would consider acquiring Hamilton, enhancing the power play stands out as the most significant factor. They’ve been much better with a man advantage lately, though little of that production is coming from the blue line.
Through their first 35 games, the Maple Leafs had averaged a 13.3% success rate on the power play, eventually leading the team to fire Marc Savard a few days before Christmas. Since then, in their next 11 contests, they’ve been clicking at a 28% rate. Still, Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, both of whom are the quarterbacks on their respective units, have combined for eight points, all assists. Hamilton is only a few years removed from having 28 power-play points himself.
Regardless, despite his potential value to Toronto, the hurdles of Hamilton’s contract remain.
Of course they are what are we thinking.
Leafs are weird. Dougie is cruising into his decline phase on a bloated contract and contributes little beyond the PP (and is a defensive liability at this stage.) If the Leafs were one piece away from Cup contention then maybe, but this seems oddly desperate.
So, Leafs, are you trying to help NJD free up cap space for a future acquisition? Like, Quinn H., for instance? (Asking for a friend)
so leafs it hurts
An aging defenseman who doesn’t play defense is the most Leafs thing they can possibly do.
LOL!
Please don’t do it again.
Ugly stuff
No Dougie Hamilton. Yes to Rasmus Andersson.
That would be a lot of fun! Please make that happen.
Canes are a terrible spot for Dougie tbh.
Far more interesting is what the report tells about Quinn. Along with the news that he wasn’t willing to commit to Detroit, it seems to indicate that he is willing to commit to the Devils after all.
“If he has any desire to play for a playoff-caliber team, the Maple Leafs serve as a better option in that regard for the time being.”
This is a weird comment. 5 minutes ago the leafs were bottom of the league.
No argument against them having a bad start to the year. But they’re 7-1-2 in their last 10 and only have 5 losses in regulation since the start of December. In the context of the article, if he does want to play in the postseason this year, accepting a trade to Toronto seems like a better option than vetoing a trade and staying in New Jersey, who have only six regulation wins since the start of December and is continuing to fall out of the playoff conversation.
The entire conference is a hot streak or cold streak from first or last – TOR will ride out their streak just like NJD will and sooner rather than later.
Perfectly selecting a specific window of time to suit your dreams aside, it says playoff calibre team. TOR isn’t that – they are worse than all of the other recent iterations of TOR teams who inevitably crumble. Should Dougie have more confidence in TOR than NJD? It’s a wash at best.
Have u looked at the standings???
Carolina isn’t quite ahead of toronto so Carolina would obviously be better the choice for playoff caliber team .
People on here do zero research and it blows my mind they post comments like this.
Toronto or Carolina for playoffs. I choose toronto lmao
Have good night
Completely illogical, awful click baiting by the least reliable part of sports media (David Pagnotta/4th Period).
Wtf would any team want him after the reading the following facts? If it was summer 2023, then 100% but he’s been ridiculously overpaid since.
Hamilton is super expensive ($9M until 2028 f owed $7.4 M on July 1, 2026), old (33 in June 2026), injured all the time (played 125 games out of 212 games since 2023) and his goals/assists/basic & advanced stats have dropped like an anchor in that time.
Hamilton made the mistake of refusing a San Jose trade – he’d be raking in the points with Celebrini – and now might have to settle for a role with the Blackhawks or Mammofh, if either will be willing to help New Jersey out…
So Toronto is thinking of potentially going after Dougie Hamilton who’s in obvious decline and take on a $9M cap hit for 2 more years after this season?… Toronto’s management is truly bafflingly inept and at times, hypothetically speaking, seem to be throwing things at a wall to see what sticks lol. A variety of their transactions during the trade deadline over the past couple of years have been highly questionable and have backfired badly in various instances for them (not that I care). However, this Hamilton deal seems like it would be in their peculiar wheelhouse. Toronto is truly the land of the bizarro.