Dougie Hamilton’s days with the New Jersey Devils could be numbered after trade talks turned public over the weekend.

Hamilton has been on the trade block in New Jersey dating back to last summer, but the team’s decision to make the veteran defenceman a healthy scratch led his agent J.P. Barry to sound off to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun.

“Dougie was informed today that he will be not be playing now that [Johnathan] Kovacevic is back in the lineup. In our view, this decision is all about business rather than his game right now. Singling him out seems very calculated at this stage,” Barry told LeBrun on Saturday. “Dougie has a 10-team trade list and there have been efforts to trade him going back to the draft last year. We have made it clear to the Devils that we will consider teams outside our list and other creative ways to get to a team that is mutually acceptable.”

Kovacevic made his season debut Sunday in a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, marking a fourth straight defeat for the Devils. New Jersey has just a 2-7-1 record in their past 10 games and sit six points back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Hamilton, 32, has five goals and 10 points in 40 games this season while averaging 21:40 of ice time. He remains signed through the 2027-28 season at a cap hit of $9 million.

Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald fired back at Barry shortly after he made his statement, specifically targeting the notion that healthy scratching Hamilton was “all about business.”

“As you know, we just put [Simon] Nemec back in the lineup on Thursday. He’s a young guy who we want getting his game back, where he had been easily our best defenceman before his injury,” Fitzgerald told LeBrun. “[Brett] Pesce’s play speaks for itself, he isn’t going anywhere. And Kovacevic coming back, gives our roster a spark we are looking for, and he was our best defensive defenceman all of last year. And that’s what we want with our lineup now. This is simply Dougie being the odd-man out with where our right side is fully healthy for the first time all year. This is business. Business of our lineup!”

The Devils returned to the playoffs last season in their first year under head coach Sheldon Keefe, before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round.

Keefe made it clear that he did not see the result he was hoping to after scratching Hamilton on Sunday.

“Today, when we’re in a position to win, we’re exposed,” he said after the loss. “We had some guys that had real tough games here today that made some plays that could really cost us. … Too many, whether it’s just soft around our net or losing structure at key times, just not good enough. There were enough good things that put [us] in a position to win, but too many mistakes that hurt you defensively. It’s hard to win like that.”

“Offence wasn’t an issue today,” Keefe added. “We had more than enough to win. It’s just another example of why we’ve got to keep reaching the process and the defensive structure, defensive play, awareness, physicality, [and] competitiveness around our net.”

The Devils will visit the Minnesota Wild in the second half of back-to-back and it’s unclear whether Sunday’s result will lead to Hamilton getting back into the lineup.

Hamilton has 156 goals and 355 assists over 875 games with the Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes and Devils, adding nine goals and 22 assists over 71 playoff games.

Boston selected Hamilton ninth overall in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.