Dougie Hamilton is somewhat of an enigma in the hockey world, because despite consistent top-pairing production on the ice, he has been traded twice before his 26th birthday.
There have been some odd rumours going around since his trade from Calgary, for the most part they just suggest that he wasn’t a good fit in their locker room, or that trading him was a way to fix the team chemistry. That seems odd, because as we see with most sports teams, winning is often what builds the best team chemistry.
So, if it was all about winning, then you would assume teams were more concerned about keeping the best players they can. Obviously, that’s not always the case and one Boston beat writer offered another example of why Hamilton might not be seen as valuable as his stats suggest – this time from a story that he believes explains his exit from Boston:
While it might explain the thinking of the NHL GMs, this makes no sense to us. When you see how successful those two players (Smith and Hamilton) are on the ice, it’s hard to believe that skipping a trip to Vegas is worth trading them. In Smith’s case, it’s clear that his attitude hasn’t stopped teams from winning; he was a major part of the Vegas Golden Knights team that surprised everyone so much and we don’t think they had any locker room issues there.
NHL management seems to care a lot about these types of problems, but they usually seem to be overblown and can be easily overcome by a good team with a supportive culture.
