{"id":403612,"date":"2026-01-12T16:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T16:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403612\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T16:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T16:01:13","slug":"dougie-hamiltons-future-front-and-centre-for-sinking-new-jersey-devils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/403612\/","title":{"rendered":"Dougie Hamilton\u2019s future front and centre for sinking New Jersey Devils"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dougie Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s days with the New Jersey Devils<\/a> could be numbered after trade talks turned public over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Hamilton has been on the trade block in New Jersey dating back to last summer, but the team\u2019s decision to make the veteran defenceman a healthy scratch led his agent J.P. Barry to sound off to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun.<\/p>\n

\u201cDougie 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,\u201d Barry told LeBrun on Saturday. \u201cDougie 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kovacevic made his season debut Sunday in a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets<\/a>, 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<\/a> for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald fired back at Barry shortly after he made his statement, specifically targeting the notion that healthy scratching Hamilton was \u201call about business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, we just put [Simon] Nemec back in the lineup on Thursday. He\u2019s a young guy who we want getting his game back, where he had been easily our best defenceman before his injury,\u201d Fitzgerald told LeBrun. \u201c[Brett] Pesce\u2019s play speaks for itself, he isn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Devils returned to the playoffs last season in their first year under head coach Sheldon Keefe<\/a>, before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n

Keefe made it clear that he did not see the result he was hoping to after scratching Hamilton on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, when we\u2019re in a position to win, we\u2019re exposed,\u201d he said after the loss. \u201cWe had some guys that had real tough games here today that made some plays that could really cost us. \u2026 Too many, whether it\u2019s 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\u2019s hard to win like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOffence wasn\u2019t an issue today,\u201d Keefe added. \u201cWe had more than enough to win. It\u2019s just another example of why we\u2019ve got to keep reaching the process and the defensive structure, defensive play, awareness, physicality, [and] competitiveness around our net.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Devils will visit the Minnesota Wild<\/a> in the second half of back-to-back and it\u2019s unclear whether Sunday\u2019s result will lead to Hamilton getting back into the lineup.<\/p>\n

Hamilton has 156 goals and 355 assists over 875 games with the Boston Bruins<\/a>, Calgary Flames<\/a>, Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> and Devils, adding nine goals and 22 assists over 71 playoff games.<\/p>\n

Boston selected Hamilton ninth overall in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dougie Hamilton\u2019s days with the New Jersey Devils could be numbered after trade talks turned public over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[4759,201,50737,5,576,151,33382,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-403612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-dougie-hamilton-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476462","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-new-jersey","13":"tag-new-jersey-devils","14":"tag-new-jersey-devils-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-1","15":"tag-newjersey","16":"tag-newjerseydevils","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115882969245072636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}