The highest paid New Jersey Devil player on the 2024-25 roster has had all kinds of issues in his own end. His shifts can range from excellent to “Egads, who is this guy?” This post goes into the problems and possible solutions for Dougie Hamilton.
Announcer: In the Brick City, a tall, wealthy, and experienced hockey player takes to the ice. He has been called many things. An Admin. A Professor. A Theme Park Enthusiast. A Museum Goer (but not in Calgary). But most call him by one name: Dougie. Dougie Hamilton to be exact. And at the place called The Rock you, yes, you can pay a significant sum of money to watch the On-Ice Adventures of Dougie Hamilton!
Even this early, Dougie has done so, so much already. Consider what transpired on Tuesday, October 22 with New Jersey Devils defenseman #7 alone!
Marvel! As a Ghostbuster, Dougie slowly skates to the left post to cover an Invisible Player as the opposition sets up an open shot. Maybe The Rock is haunted?
Coo! As Dougie uses his big frame to pin Conor Geekie to the boards! No, he did not win the puck, whatever do you mean?
Wonder! When Hamilton defends a 2-on-2 with Paul Cotter, keeps his eye on the puck, and picks up defenseman Emil Lilleberg at the net after his shot is stopped by Jake Allen! Pay no attention to #38. Hamilton sure didn’t!
Whiff! Dougie misses a pass from his teammate after moving high up in the zone for an exit a but it gets an exit. And then, um, well, it is not always a good Adventure! Ha ha…ehh…sigh.
Nod! Dougie makes a simple pass to a teammate that leads to another for a power play goal! The 5th in a 5-8 game! Dougie’s third point of the season; a secondary assist after being denied one earlier in the game. Fantasy owners sure nodded!
This was all just from Tuesday night! The Adventures of Dougie Hamilton can go as far as the continent goes and wide as far as what to see. You can see successful breakout passes and cringe-worthy giveaways within the same period! You can see smart decisions to pinch and seeming inaction on other shifts! You can see him rotate to pick up an opponent or just amble about unaware of his surroundings! Points? He did just score a goal recently! More could be coming! Expect the unexpected when #7 takes to the ice. For this month and many more, the On-Ice Adventures of Dougie Hamilton will only grow!
I used that bit of silliness to highlight one of the issues I have observed from Dougie Hamilton this season. He has been remarkably inconsistent. It is true that players can, do and will make mistakes. It is true that players can, do, and have particularly good or bad shifts and nights. Hamilton has been unique in his performances being all over the map so early in this season. It was one thing in preseason. It is another to see it as recent as the blowout loss to Tampa Bay. The highlights did not include Hamilton’s brutal turnovers or his sharp exit passes, both happening within shifts of each other in the same game. Calling a defenseman’s play as an adventure is not a positive in general. Even though he played better in Detroit, there is no telling that it would continue to tonight’s game or through the rest of the season.
This is a problem for a couple of reasons. First, Hamilton is no newbie. He is 31 with 781 regular season games and 66 playoff games played in the NHL and counting. This is his fourth team. Hamilton is very much a veteran at this level. With average ice times of at least 20 minutes in each of the last six seasons, he is even a veteran with the amount of ice time he gets. What is more is that this is his fourth season with the Devils. As much as his first season and last season were cut short due to injuries, he is very familiar with how assistant coach Ryan McGill, who has been in charge of the defense and penalty kill, does business and how the organization does business. That he has had games where his performances ranges from being a $9 million cap player to a $900,000 cap player in the same night is a concern in of itself.
Second, Hamilton is who he is and has been utilized appropriately in at least theory. Is Hamilton a lock-it-down, shut-it-down defender? Not really. He is competent enough to handle the minutes he does get. Is he an excellent offensive defenseman who can pile up the points? Absolutely. As such, he is the lone defenseman on the Devils’ primary power play unit. While he has just the one (1) goal and two (2) assists in his first nine games, he has been a consistent 40+ point producer in his career with exceptions due to injuries. He is also a big shooter and at least that has continued with previous seasons as he averages over 3 shots per game so far this season. He gets power play time and significant minutes in 5-on-5. Hamilton has been very good for the most part in that role up until this season.
Third, Hamilton is the highest paid player on the New Jersey Devils. His $9 million cap hit belies the $12.6 million in salary he is getting this season per PuckPedia. That number is not a typo. Last season and this season are the peak seasons on his current contract, which has three more seasons on it. Before you ask, yes, he has a no-movement clause for this season. Next season and beyond, that clause is modified to allow a 10-team no-trade list. Which means demotion is not an option but a trade could – assuming someone is willing to take on the contract. In any case, it may not be my money or your money, but it’s the team’s money. Accordingly, the expectations for Hamilton should also be very high. His performances need to be as close to that value and not like what you would expect from an AHL callup on some shifts.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, the Devils have been performing notably worse with Hamilton on the ice in 5-on-5 play. Here are his on-ice rate stats at 5-on-5 when Hamilton has taken a shift with the Devils since signing with them in 2021 prior to yesterday’s game.
Natural Stat Trick
Goodness! These numbers were pulled to yesterday’s game but even if he had a perfect Thursday in Detroit, these numbers really highlight how bad it has really been. For what it’s worth, his against rates went down a bit from the Detroit game but are still higher than the majority of his time as a Devil and in the NHL.
Throughout his time as a Devil and even prior to that, Hamilton has been a generator or at least a contributor to a team’s offense. When he takes a shift, the rate of attempts is often above 60, the rate of shots are above 35, and the expected goals range from the high twos to the low threes. That much has continued into 2024-25. That is a positive even if the production is still quite low for a $12.6 million salaried player.
The problem is with all of the against rate stats. What opponents do to the Devils when Hamilton takes a shift. Those numbers have been absolutely terrible in 2024-25 so far. The rate of attempts against is almost as high as the number of attempts generated. Hamilton has never finished a season with a CA/60 of 60 or higher. The rate of shots against is currently higher than his previous high in 2021-22, something that was certainly corrected in the two following seasons. Scoring chances and high danger chances against have went through the roof with Hamilton on the ice. This supports the notion that he and his teammates are not protecting the dangerous areas of their zone well. The goals are the real punisher. The expected goals model supports the idea that the Devils have been getting worked over with Hamilton on the ice. An xGA/60 of 3.27 is far and away the worst in Hamilton’s career. It also pales in comparison to the rate of actual goals against, which is an abysmal 5.58 per 60 minutes. Yes, some of these numbers are still heavily impacted by one or two games. However, they do back up the observations that the Devils defense has stunk with Hamilton on the ice this season.
And this is also with knowing that Hamilton is still himself. He has never been a swift skater or a fast responder. He has never been a defensive wizard; he does not even kill penalties regularly. Hamilton is not trying to do things he used to do and succeed like in the last seasons of P.K. Subban. Knowing that means makes his numbers even less acceptable because they were never this bad even with the Devils.
So What Do You Do with Hamilton? What Can You Do?
The end goal is to make Hamilton provide more value than just being a far worse Damon Severson. There are some silver linings. Hamilton is indeed shooting the puck at a rate similar with past seasons. The Devils are attacking when he is on the ice. The points, I think, will come for Hamilton provided those two things continue. The current issue is that they are allowing way, way too much with that offense. That is where I think the Devils need to start.
Since the start of this season, Hamilton has been paired with Brenden Dillon. More than just a most-common-pairing, the Hamilton has played over 118 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey with Dillon and just over 32 minutes without him prior to the Detroit game. Those minutes have featured the Devils attacking a whole lot (73.53 CF/60! 3.72 xGF/60! 4.56 GF/60!) and giving up a whole lot (67.95 CA/60! 3.14 xGA/60! 6.09 GA/60!) prior to the Detroit game. In particular, the recent overtime loss to Washington and the recent loss to Tampa Bay has shown the pairing to be poor. Whether it is because two not-quick defensemen are getting exposed for it or because the two just do not play well off of each other is beside the point. There is enough data so far in this part of the season to suggest that Hamilton could use a different partner.
Of those 32 minutes and change, his most common non-defenseman teammate is 10:31 of Simon Nemec. While that short-lived experience was especially bad, 10 minutes across nine games is not terribly meaningful. The good news for New Jersey is that with the impending returns of Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes, the coaching staff has options. They can re-unite Hamilton with Jonas Siegenthaler, who has been steadier this season than last season. They can put a healthy Luke Hughes with Hamilton for an all-offense pairing that at least has a mix of speeds. If the coaching staff is comfortable with someone playing on their offhand, they could experiment with Pesce or Johnathan Kovacevic. The point is that an immediate change in Hamilton’s partner would be a good first step.
A good second step or a first step in parallel with the changing of a partner is to sit Hamilton down and sort it out. This is something that Keefe and his staff should be doing if they have not done so already. As much as I want to say Hamilton should just play like he is worth $12.6 million, it is up to the coaching staff to figure out why he is lacking in coverage. A common excuse for Hamilton’s performances is related to his torn pectoral, which ended his 2023-24 season 20 games into the season. I agree that coming back from a significant injury is hard. I do not agree that a torn pectoral is why the reads he is making are all over the ice, why his breakout passes become turnovers, why he is pinching in some cases but not in others, and such. With a new coach and hopefully a new expectation for this season’s team, Hamilton (and others) need to at least understand the message than the time for excuses is over. Getting a player going may not be just from getting a goal or having a good shift. It could come from his boss (bosses) making it clear that the effort level (a.k.a. the compete) has to be higher.
A third step may be for Keefe, McGill, and the staff to look at the overall defensive zone tactic. I am glad they are not swarming themselves into oblivion. I am not so glad that they struggled against a team they recently beat (Washington) and followed up those struggles by being even worse in the next game (Tampa Bay). Even if they suffocate Detroit, it speaks to me that there may need to be some adjustments to how the defensive zone play is coached. Other than Hamilton, there have been shifts where the Devils return to their old Ruff-ian ways of quick exits in place of Keefe’s desire for more methodical zone exits. There are only so many ways to defend, so the issue may be in how Keefe and his staff are communicating their plans, their philosophy, and their expectations to Hamilton and other Devils. Adjusting or simplifying that may be the key to getting the players to be where they are on the ice and at least in position to make plays. Seriously, Hamilton’s positioning on Hedman’s goal was not just horrid. It was strange to see a vet of 780+ games just cover no one. That tells me someone is not getting the message. In addition to getting Hamilton to get it, the message may needs to better given too.
What I will argue against is trying to make Hamilton into something he is not. He is 31. He has over 800 games under his belt between regular season and playoff games. He is who he is at this point. He is not going to become a speed demon of a defenseman who can backcheck hard if and when he gets caught up high. He is not going to use his massive frame to be a wrecking ball on opponents as much as that would please Ken Daneyko and the People Who Matter who support his commentary. (Aside: An example from the Tampa Bay game: he called Timo Meier checking Conor Geekie in the numbers into the boards as a good play and something he wants to see more of. Meier was called for boarding and Tampa Bay scored on that power play. No, Dano, it was not good.) Hamilton is very much a creator and a shooter on offense who can handle business in his own end provided he is not expected to do it all himself. The Devils knew what they were getting in Hamilton when they signed him in 2021 and he has provided plenty of value on that fat contract since then when healthy. It is important that in trying to make him less of a liability for the team at large in this season that they do not keep him from what made him in asset in the first place. Something has to change, yes, but not everything.
Your Take
The Adventures Dougie needs to have should be more positive ones and not, well, eventful ones in his own end of the rink. While it is just 10 games into the season (and 11 after tonight), there is enough that has happened to justify some kind of action. I think it should be a new partner, a sit-down with the Hamilton to make sure he understands what the ask is from his coaches, and even checking to make sure if defensive message is being fully understood. Those are three things that could be done relatively quickly. A far better set of ideas than to do nothing and just hope it works itself out.
That is how I see it. Now I want to know how you see it. What do you think of Dougie Hamilton’s play so far in this season? What would you do with the player to address his not-so-good Adventures and to encourage more positive ones? Please leave your answers and other Hamilton-related thoughts in the comments. Thank you for reading.