SAN JOSE – Do the San Jose Sharks still have interest in acquiring veteran defenseman Dougie Hamilton, as they reportedly did last offseason?
It is anticipated that Hamilton, 32, will be a healthy scratch on Sunday when the Devils play the Jets in Winnipeg, as fellow right-shot defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic is ready to return to New Jersey’s lineup after missing the first three months of the season recovering from knee surgery he had in May 2025.
With Kovacevic back and Simon Nemec, 21, needing to play games in the eyes of Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald, and Brett Pesce a bright spot on the team’s blue line, Hamilton is, in the words of New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe, “the odd-man out.”
It’s not that simple, according to Hamilton’s agent, J.P. Barry, who told The Athletic he views Hamilton’s scratching as a “calculated” maneuver intended to force the 2020-21 NHL All-Star to accept a trade.
Hamilton is in the fifth year of a seven-year, $63 million contract that, starting this season, includes a modified no-trade clause allowing him to be traded only to one of 10 teams.
The Sharks did try to acquire Hamilton last offseason, but Hamilton blocked that move, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. Since the Sharks have been better than expected this season, Friedman wondered whether Hamilton would have a change of heart.
Hamilton’s contract runs through the 2027-28 season and carries a $9 million cap hit. Per PuckPedia, he is owed $13.65 million in salary over the next two seasons, including a $7.4 million bonus this offseason.
Barry told The Athletic that Hamilton is willing to be flexible with his 10-team trade list, saying, “We have made it clear to the Devils that we will consider teams outside our list and other creative ways to get to a team that is mutually acceptable.”
It’s unclear, though, whether the Sharks still have interest in Hamilton, who has 10 points and is averaging 21:41 in ice time in 40 games this season.
After the start of free agency in July, the Sharks signed right-shot defenseman John Klingberg to a one-year, $4 million contract and left-shot defenseman Dmitry Orlov to a two-year, $13 million deal. The Sharks also claimed two defensemen off waivers, Nick Leddy, a left-shot, in July, and Vincent Iorio, a right-shot, in October.
Klingberg and Orlov are the Sharks’ two highest-scoring defensemen this season with a combined 38 points in 75 games.
Orlov and rookie Sam Dickinson, though, are the only two defensemen on the Sharks’ roster who are signed past this season. Klingberg, who is on injured reserve, is one of five Sharks blueliners who can become unrestricted free agents in July if they are not re-signed.
Since the start of the 2012-13 season, Hamilton’s 511 points — in 875 career NHL regular-season games — rank 10th among all defensemen. He’s finished in the top nine in Norris Trophy voting as the NHL’s top defenseman four times, most recently after the 2022-23 season, when he had 74 points in 82 games and was sixth in voting. Injuries, though, have limited Hamilton to 84 games over the last two seasons.
The Sharks are already at the 50-contract maximum, and would need to trade at least one player out if they wanted to bring in Hamilton. The Sharks would also need to move a contract out if rookie center Michael Misa plays a 10th game this season, which would trigger the first year of his entry-level deal. Misa has played seven games for the Sharks this season.
Including their 5-4 overtime victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday, the Sharks (23-18-3) have won six of their last seven games and enter Sunday in third place in the Pacific Division. They host the division-leading Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday at 5 p.m.
The Devils are 2-6-1 since a 2-1 win over the Utah Mammoth on Dec. 19 and enter Sunday six points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
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