The 2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs have come to life. Over the past three weeks, Toronto has turned its season from hell into one of hope. The team has gone 8-1-2 since assistant coach Marc Savard was fired on Dec. 22 and is finally playing a style of hockey that suits the players on the roster.
Granted, I don’t have any stats to back this up, but after watching almost every minute of Leaf hockey this season, it’s clear that during this winning stretch the team is putting more emphasis on exiting and entering zones of control rather than throwing pucks out of their defensive zone and dumping pucks into the offensive zone.
They’ve also done a much better job lately of holding zone time and using off-the-puck movement to create high-quality chances. The Leafs are finally using their speed more in transition. To start the year, Toronto looked slowlyww, but when I look at their lineup, it’s not a roster full of players who scream low-level, low-tempo hockey. Watching the Leafs keep up with Colorado as they largely did on Monday night, it’s clear this team can attack and defend with speed. That it took until late December for the Leafs’ playing style to align with their roster is an indictment on Craig Berube, but he also deserves credit for making adjustments before it was too late.
Finally, the biggest reason the Leafs may even consider acquiring Dougie Hamilton for a playoff push is the play of captain Auston Matthews. Matthews has looked dominant over the last ten games, scoring eight times and being the most dangerous player on the ice almost every shift. He has generated 55 scoring chances since December 23, 24 more than any other Leaf in that period, of which 25 were high-danger chances. Matthews can turn Toronto from a bubble team into a potential contender in the wide-open Eastern Conference if he continues to play like he did during his 60-goal seasons.
Another player who could help make the Leafs a contender in the East is Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton’s name has been popping up in trade rumors for over a month after it was reported that the New Jersey Devils had asked him waive his no-trade clause in an effort to create space for a Quinn Hughes trade. Hamilton didn’t back down, and reportedly did too vetoed a transaction to the San Jose Sharks last summer when the Devils tried and continue to try to move his $9 million annual cap hit. Before we dive into his potential fit with Toronto, let’s take a look at why the Devils are so desperate to get rid of Hamilton, and what value he still brings to an NHL lineup.
The situation
The simplest reason why New Jersey wants to trade Hamilton is that cap hit I referenced earlier. At 32 years old, Hamilton has just five goals and 13 points in 42 games, and $9 million is a lot of money for an aging defenseman who isn’t generating goals or points. The Devils have a lot of holes and a lot of NHL caliber defensemen, too many in fact. If they could free up Hamilton’s money, it would free them from the defensive deadlock and give them space to make additions up front.
The Devils are paying Hamilton to be their bona fide number one defenseman, and at this point in his career, that’s probably not something he’s capable of. The 32-year-old has just three goals and three assists in a five-on-five situation this season and is producing just 0.81 points per 60, which ranks as the lowest figure of his career. Over the past three years before that, Hamilton generated 1.89, 2.29 and 2.49 points per 60, respectively. The former Calgary Flame has also seen a significant increase in giveaways over the past two seasons, going from 2.49 turnovers per 60 in 23/24 to 4.4 in 24/25 and 4.44 per hour so far this season. Perhaps a sign that the game is starting to move a little faster for him than before.
Hamilton, a fixture on the team’s first power play of his entire career, has lost his stranglehold on that spot over the past two seasons, with the Devils putting their faith in 22-year-old Luke Hughes to run their PP (Hughes also makes $9 million). That doesn’t mean Hamilton couldn’t be the power-play quarterback for another team, but it’s another reason why the Devils might view him as surplus to requirements.
The player
On the plus side, Hamilton still seems to be driving play at a solid pace, and the Devils have statistically been a much worse team without Hamilton on the ice. The former first-round pick has always been an analytical darling, and this season is no different. Hamilton’s expected goal share is almost 54% at five-on-five, meaning his team generates 54 percent of the scoring opportunities when he is on the ice. New Jersey has a 44% xGF share with Hamilton on the bench. This isn’t a player who drowns defensively or kills any offensive possession when the puck hits his stick; he can still keep up and be effective. He’s not perfect in his own zone, but the offensive edge and puck-moving skills outweigh his defensive vulnerabilities.
One of the few metrics the Devils are better at without Hamilton on the ice is shooting percentage, which suggests Hamilton’s lackluster point production is partly due to bad luck. When Hamilton has been on the ice, his team’s shooting percentage is just 6.83, by far the lowest of his career and well below New Jersey’s overall shooting percentage of 8.73. That’s not to say Hamilton hasn’t performed below expectations this year, but it does add some color to what has been a nightmarish season for the defender. In the right situation, with better shooting talent around him and steady goaltending, I think Hamilton is ready to start producing again.
If reports are to be believed, it appears the Devils really just want to get rid of Hamilton’s contract, creating a unique buying opportunity for a team that can make the money work but doesn’t have many valuable assets to trade.
The fit
Which leads us to the Leafs and the potential acquisition of Hamilton, who would seemingly slot in seamlessly to replace the injured Chris Tanev as Toronto’s right-handed defenseman. It has now been reported by a few people that Brad Treliving is interested in trying to get one Hamilton trade work. Clearly, the biggest hurdle to making a move to Toronto is Hamilton’s goal. The Leafs aren’t as tight against the cap as in years past, but they don’t have a lot of flexibility either.
Currently, Treliving sits at approximately $3.4 million in trade deadline cap space and could free up another $3.8 million if he is willing to place Tanev on long-term injury reserve, effectively ending the defenseman’s season. Doing so would put the Leafs at approximately $7.2 million in total cap space and open up a deal for Hamilton in which the Devils keep some of his contract or take salary back (Max Domi?) from the Leafs. Anyway, the point is that it’s entirely possible for Toronto to make the money work if they really want to do this.
Hamilton is exactly the type of player Toronto has needed for years. As Morgan Rielly’s ability to move the puck has diminished year over year since his new contract took effect, Toronto has lacked a reliable offensive defenseman who can create easy plays and initiate transitions with one pass for the team’s top talent. Hamilton would immediately become the guy to throw Berube out when the Leafs need a goal late or a chance to be aggressive in an offensive zone. He’s also 6-foot-4 and can skate, a profile that fits exactly what Treliving was looking for during his time as Leafs GM.
Adding the former All-Star could allow the rest of the Buds defense to slide into positions on the depth chart that better suit their strengths. A front pair of Hamilton and Jake McCabe would be more than strong enough to provide the other team’s top lines, giving Berube flexibility with second and third pairings of Rielly-Brendan Carlo and Oliver Ekman-Larsson paired with Troy Stecher. Simon Benoit then gets good depth, and it ensures that Phillipe Myers never plays another game for the hockey club, which is really the only thing all Leaf fans want.
Hamilton’s aforementioned power play skills are also incredibly enticing for the Leafs. Rielly’s lack of shooting threat and poor decision-making are increasingly hurting Toronto’s power play, and this year is the most obvious example of that. Berube and his staff know that Rielly is not the ideal choice to run their power play; They also showed this last year and chose to play with five attackers for most of the season.
On the power play over the past three seasons, Hamilton has allowed 11.17 goals per hour on the ice, compared to Rielly’s 9.63. His addition would give the Leafs a new weapon and add a dimension to their power play that they haven’t had since Matthews was drafted.
I don’t think this is a year where Treliving should be aggressive at the trade deadline. Despite their recent success, his hockey team hasn’t shown enough all season to prove they’re worth trading the few future assets Toronto has left to try and win a Cup.
However, Hamilton makes perfect sense because the Leafs have so little to trade. The Devils won’t give him away in free agency, but if you were to give them a second-round pick or a fourth-round pick and say Calle Jarnkrok’s expiring contract to make the money work, would that be enough? Could New Jersey also keep 15% of Hamilton’s contract? I think you really need to test how much the Devils want to get out of this deal. Hamilton isn’t a rental either; he still has two years left on his contract after this.
Obviously, I have no idea what the exact price for Hamilton would look like or how they would make the cap hit work. I’ll leave that to Brad Treliving and Tom Fitzgerald to figure this out. But as long as the Leafs don’t have to trade Easton Cowan, Ben Danford, and any first-round picks, I’d say figure out a way to make Dougie Hamilton a Leaf.
This is the type of trade that expands the Leafs’ Cup window and fills a huge hole on the blueline without mortgaging key future assets.
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