After a very busy start to the offseason for the Carolina Hurricanes, the biggest piece of news remains the departure of defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who signed with the New Jersey Devils in free agency.
Hamilton spent three seasons with the Hurricanes and had taken on a top-pairing role with the team. He became one of the league's top offensive defensemen over the last couple of years, scoring 10 goals and 42 points in 55 games this past season.
In addition to Hamilton leaving, Jani Hakanpaa signed with the Dallas Stars, and the Hurricanes also dealt defenseman Jake Bean to the Columbus Blue Jackets. To compensate for the losses, the team added Ethan Bear, Ian Cole, Tony DeAngelo and Brendan Smith.
The most interesting addition was Bear, who’s still just 24 years old and could become a long-term, top-four defender with the Hurricanes. After a very strong 2019-20 season, Bear was averaging under 18 minutes per game last season, but could still be Carolina’s best option to round out the top-four group.
Without Hamilton, we may also see Brett Pesce stepping into a top-pairing role with Jaccob Slavin. The Hurricanes could opt to use Slavin and Pesce on different pairings, instead using Slavin-Bear and going back to Skjei-Pesce, but it’s still very much up in the air as to what the team does to start the season. We could then potentially see a bottom pairing of Ian Cole and Tony DeAngelo, with Jake Gardiner and Brendan Smith as spares.
As a projection, here’s what the pairs could possibly look like:
Essentially, we can expect even more pressure to be put on Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce next season. Each player was averaging nearly 23 minutes per game this year and we’ll likely see Slavin, Pesce and even Skjei taking on tough matchups on a consistent basis.
Even with Slavin and Pesce both being very capable defenders, Hamilton’s offense from the blue line can’t be replaced. He was tied for fifth in the league in goals, was tied for seventh in points and was playing over three minutes per game on the power play. There’s simply no way the Hurricanes will get that kind of offensive production from any of their top defenders.
In all fairness, Hamilton wasn’t excellent defensively, as he could sometimes lack intensity in battles. As a result, it’s tough to say how much the Hurricanes will actually suffer defensively, with the biggest loss instead being offensive contributions from the blue line. That said, it’s important to factor in that Hamilton was also facing the highest quality of competition out of any defensemen on the Hurricanes (according to Hockey Abstract) and others would have struggled much more in that role.
No matter how the Hurricanes structure their defense group next season, Hamilton's departure is still a huge loss for the team's blue line.
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Do you think the Hurricanes will use Slavin-Pesce as their top pairing to start the year?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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