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Early Monday morning, some intriguing news dropped about Dougie Hamilton. The 27 year old (28 in three days) has been given permission to discuss with other NHL teams ahead of the start of Free Agency, beginning on July 28th.
Now normally this is where I would break down all of Dougie Hamilton's stats, his strengths and weaknesses, and spend the entire blog breaking down everything you need to know about the player. That isn't the purpose of this blog. All I will say about Hamilton is this; Dougie Hamilton is a top pairing defender, has scored more goals than any other defender over the past four seasons and improves the play of his partner, in this year's case Jacob Slavin. If he is ready to hit the open market, the Edmonton Oilers should absolutely be interested.
The question for today's blog is how interested. The Oilers have a number of holes they need to address, most specifically up front, and while the team does have a large chunk of change to spend in the tune of 28 million dollars, that could get eaten up fast by a few key free agent signings. Adding Dougie Hamilton would 100% improve the Oilers roster but can Edmonton afford it?
For arguments sake, let's say Edmonton and Hamilton do come to terms and Hamilton signs a seven year 8 million dollar with the team. I'd argue that 8 million is on the higher end of what Hamilton could get on the open market. Signing Hamilton at that amount would leave the Oilers with just over 19 million left in cap space. From there I will make a few of the same decisions I made in my previous blog
here which includes:
- Signing Yamamoto to a 1.8 million x2 year deal
- Signing Mike Smith to a 1.5 million x1 year deal
- Buying out Mikko Koskinen
There were other moves I made which included extending Adam Larsson and Jujhar Khaira but we're going to hold off on those for just a moment. That would leave the Oilers roster at just under 20 million in cap space thanks to the Koskinen buyout with these holes remaining:
________-McDavid-Puljujarvi
________-Draisaitl)-Kassian
________-McLeod-Archibald
Neal-_______-Kassian
Shore
Nurse-Bear
_____-Hamilton
Jones-Bouchard
Russell
Smith
Stalock
There are still a number of areas to be addressed but oh boy is there some promise in having the right side on defense. Now without naming any names, let's add in from my previous blog, the rough amounts I expect the Oilers would have to spend to add impact players in these remaining positions.
Top Six LW/RNH(5.5)-McDavid(12.5)-Puljujarvi(1.175)
Top Six LW(6)-Draisaitl(8.5)-Top Six Right Winger(4)
Depth Scoring Winger/Holloway/Benson(<2)-Right Shot Centre(3)-Yamamoto(1.8)
Shore(0.85)-McLeod(0.834)-Archibald(1.5)
Neal(5.75)-Kassian(3.2)
Nurse(5.6)-Bear(2)
Top 4 Defenseman(4.1)-Hamilton(8)
Jones(0.85)-Bouchard(0.863)
Russell(1.25)
Goalie(3.5)
Smith(1.5)
Stalock(0.785)
With the Koskinen buyout this roster layout puts the Edmonton Oilers just over 7 million dollars over the cap. Edmonton would have to trade Kassian and Neal with no salary retained to make this work. On top of that, there are issues making things work in the following years. After next year Jesse Puljujarvi is going to need a new contract as will Darnell Nurse and both of those could come in at a decent price. Nurse should be expected to make between 7-8 million on his next deal and if Puljujarvi continues to establish himself as a top line winger he could make north of 4 million. Edmonton needs to spend cap this off-season on assets but they need to be mindful of their future as well.
If Edmonton wanted Hamilton, they will need to make sacrifices somewhere else in the roster:
Top Six LW/RNH(5.5)-McDavid(12.5)-Puljujarvi(1.175)
Top Six LW(6)-Draisaitl(8.5)-Yamamoto(1.8)
Depth Scoring Winger/Holloway/Benson(<2)-McLeod(0.834)-Archibald(1.5)
Shore(0.8)-Right Shot Centre (1.5)-Kassian(3.2)
Neal(5.75)
Nurse(5.6)-Bear(2)
Jones(0.85)-Hamilton(8)
Russell(1.25)-Bouchard(0.863)
Lagesson
Goalie(3.5)
Smith(1.5)
Stalock(0.785)
Here we have not signed an additional top six winger, opting to keep Yamamoto in the top six. In addition we downgraded at centre and instead of signing a guy like Getzlaf, we are adding a Luke Glendening. Lastly the team is rolling the dice more on the left hand side at D, opting for Jones alongside Hamilton with young options like Lagesson and perhaps Broberg around to push for competition.
Ultimately it is possible but I don't expect the Oilers to be in the running. It's my belief Holland sticks with Bear, Larsson, and Bouchard on the right side for the future. Hamilton may be an upgrade but it wasn't defense that let the Oilers down in the playoffs against the Jets, it was any scoring outside of the top two players in McDavid and Draisaitl. Until that is addressed, a player like Hamilton is an expensive bonus.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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