It would have been interesting, if Dougie Hamilton and his restricted free agent status would have been tested tomorrow, if he made it to restricted free agency. Hamilton was a threat to Boston, through the offer sheet process, and could have very well have been a target, even after his rights were acquired by the Calgary Flames at the draft.
Nevertheless, the Flames saw to it that there was no threat, signing the future franchise defenseman to a 6-year deal, reportedly worth $34.5 million. This works out to be a $5.75 million cap hit per season, the highest on the Flames blueline for the coming 2016 season.
The 22-year old led all Bruins blueliners last season with 10 goals and 42 points in 72 games last season, which was good enough for 22nd among all defensemen in pool scoring.
At only 22 years old, there is definitely some growth in his game to come. The question quickly becomes, how much growth? Well, a new team in a new conference, it may come as a shock to the system initially, so I won't be too high on him, when it comes to projection time, but he'll see a slight increase.
Maybe the better question becomes, "who is going to give up their minutes?" The seven defensemen the Flames have (Hamilton, Dennis Wideman, T.J. Brodie, Mark Giordano, Ladislav Smid, Deryk Engelland and Kris Russell, in order of cap hit) will all want their share of the ice-time pie. This could truly be the year, where Bob Hartley wins the Jack Adams, shuffling the hot hand around.
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