NHL Mock Draft (SBN): Could the Islanders pick Dougie Hamilton?

http://communities.sportsnet.ca/thread/58898;jsessionid=WRk8NyHQRhpzSXcYjbpLGQWtRT3Q7CMQRQ9J3T7tBF9LsKGQ8dlW

If this is true, it explains a lot of things. Ranging from his Oleksiak-size defensive issues to his offensive puckhandling and overall skills not being tip top. It could all be related to growing into body issues. If this is true, I’m changing my mind and saying we need to draft this behemoth of a d-man that can skate and eventually be a 2-way physical monster of a d-man for our team one day. Easily he’d become a PK specialist, and highly likely getting 2nd or 1st line PP minutes, logging 22-23min a night. Even if his offensive skills never take off, he has the makings of an elite shutdown d-man with his size/physicality/mobilitiy/smarts at 6’7’’.

good winning team up there. I believe the won all their home games this season.

I know that many have said “draft the best available”,but with so many forwards in the system it would be a breathe of fresh air and a way to address the organizations needs. Hamilton is big, physical, and from what many have scouted, not far from making the nhl. He is something that is hard for us to get in free agency. If we drafted him he would be a physical defenseman among puck-moving defenseman with size: you can’t teach size. If Hamilton fell to number five, then I would encourage the Islanders to take him.

Because this is as wide open a draft as I can remember.

As far as Hamilton goes, right after the draft lottery, everybody had us taking him at 5. Then he seemed to fall. I’ve even seen him at 10 and 11. That was because Huberdeau jumped into the discussion of picks 1-3 pushing everbody down, and then Strome suddenly jumped up and became “Denis Savard” (per Craig Button). Heck, then you had Zibanejad jump to the top 6 as a nasty, physical forward with skill. Of course, there’s also Ryan Murphy who, depending on who you read, is possibly the most dynamic, skilled player in the entire draft, forward or defense, or a defender who will never be capable of playing regular pair minutes because he’s too much of a defensive liability.

Comparisons to Bouwmeester don’t exactly impress me. I think Bouwmeester is overpaid and overrated. I’ve seen items criticizing Hamilton’s hockey IQ even though he’s a really smart kid. The skating is good, then it’s bad. Now he’s suddenly 6’7". Next thing you know we’ll discover that Hamilton – or one of these other kids – was born on the planet Krypton. Watch, he might get taken before Larsson. Anybody got a dart and a dartboard?

The only good thing about this draft is that I have confidence in Snow, Kenny Morrow, our scouts and all those extra birddogs Garth employs to make a good pick.

For those of us old enough to remember Tom Seaver he continued to grow in height until he was 21. It happens. Some people are luckier than others. I grew up with a kid who was a smurf in high school. Ran into him during college and I was the smurf and I am 6’ even.

He is another source, though a blog, regarding Hamilton’s height.

http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=919772&page=26

We are back to decision time. Huberdeau or Hamilton?

Where does Huberdeau fit on our team? He is not a center but a left wing. Don’t we have deep pool of LWer’s developing?

To me the choice for the Isles is really between Strome, Mika, and Hamilton. Mika could add a little spice to the right side as well as Strome. But having a Giant on the blue line sometime in the future would be nice.

as much as i would love for the isles to get either larsson or landeskog, i feel that hamilton is the right choice to make at 5. Hamilton was great on an average niagra team, while huberdeau was a great player on an amazing st john’s team…i still think that huberdeau’s numbers were boosted by the people he played with…now that hamilton has been listed at 6’6.5" he fills the greatly needed lack of size on our blue line

He is what we need. Size, mean streak, and D. He had pretty good numbers on an ok team while Huberdeau was greeat on a great team. We are pretty deep at forward, but we dont have many potential 1st pair defenseman, and that is what Hamilton could eventually be

this draft could easily go RNH, followed by Larsson, and possibly Huberdeau to Florida, then Couturier or Landeskog to NJD and the oher one of those two would then be ours

which would be awesome

am starting to think this just might happen

I am on record as being in favour of picking Hamilton ahead of Huberdeau. Not sure if the same is true of Landeskog or Couturier.

If Hamilton is really 6 — 6 1/2, then I think he bumps ahead of Couturier, in my ranks. I still think I take Landeskog, if he’s available. I don’t think he will be.

I am still not sold on Hamilton. I am not a scout and honestly have not seen him play. However, i have heard nothing spectacular of Hamilton until recently. This may be a case of there being no elite defensemen in this draft outside of Larsson. He sounds like a solid two way dman who would serve as a great compliment to a star dman. Never a #1. This is all just one man’s opinion, but if the Isles stay at the 5 spot i feel they must pick whats left of RNH, Landeskog, Larsson, Huberdeau or Couturier. If they trade up they must grab Landeskog, but i would put a lot of money that Colorado takes him. They are probably salivating at the chance to select him. Trade for Eric Johnson, Chris Stewart gone, who better to replace him? (especially with Forsberg’s history with the franchise). Plus they also have the 11th pick. Plenty of solid D left in that slot. I also feel Couturier’s bad rap recently is extremely unwarranted and if teams pass on him someone is going to get really lucky that he falls into their laps. Typical, we’ve seen him be great for 2 years so lets see what we can find wrong with him now. Player’s who emerge in their draft year only allow great things to be said about them.

D-men drafted in the top 5 since 2007:
Hickey, Alzner, Doughty, Bogosian, Pietrangelo, Schenn, Victor Hedman, Gudbranson.
Aside from Doughty can you say any of these players have had a MAJOR impact on their teams success? Hedman is close. If you include him that makes 2 dmen (which were drafted 2nd overall) that have made strong impacts on their team. Hamilton is nowhere near touted as highly as those two. Do the Isles really need a Dman who they hope will have a major impact on the team 3-4 years down the road? I dont think this is the route we need to go at this moment. We are ready now. Draft a forward who can play now or next year. Draft D with later picks and sign someone to play with streit via free agency.

(of course this is “educated” speculation and anything can always happen) So take it with a grain of salt, im just judging this on history.

Guy should be good for 30 every year, but even if you look at last year he didnt play PP and he wasnt put out in crucial situations. Not to say that can’t change, but i dont see Grabner taking over a game. His speed is deadly and if his hands can catch up to his feet who knows what he can do. I just dont see him being able to dominate.

Reasons and Examples:

-There are only 7 starting 6’6’’ and taller d-men in the nhl right now(3 6’7’’+). They are Chara, Pronger, Myers, Gill, Sutton, Schultz, and Hedman. You might recognize some of those names  . All of them are tremendous assets on the PK and in the defensive zone. Only 2 of those players never played more than 23min/gm in a season. 1, Hedman because of his age and 2, Schultz because of his bad skating and doofiness. And even with Schultz’s faults, he is still a big asset on the PK and logs 19min/gm. Size is a "game-changer" on defense. And when you have one of the rare intelligent gigantic d-men in the nhl, they become a HUGE asset on the PK and a HUGE asset in the defensive zone, even more so if they are very mobile(as is Hamilton). And Hamilton has all the tools to be an elite "shutdown" player in the defensive zone. And….You can’t teach size!

-Tall d-men growing into their bodies:
Myers, Chara, Sutton, and Gil were all players that had notable growth after their draft year(Sutton undrafted), mostly because they were awkwardly tall players that grew into their bodies post-draft. THIS could easily now be the major reasoning for Hamilton having a little trouble with his puckhandling and defensive issues, just like those other guys I talked about and Oleksiak right now(but Oleksiak is having more of these issues).

-There is a "near" lock at Hamilton’s 6’7’’ size, coordination, mobility, physicality(why not), and smarts that he will be "at the absolute least" a top PK and defensive 21min/gm top 4 d-man with puckmoving skills for whatever team that drafts him. Or a mobile puckmoving(~20pts/yr) Hal Gill. Highly likely imo, Hamilton will become a top PKer that runs a 2nd unit PP(or plays on a 1st) and logs 22-23min/gm as a "top pairing" d-man chipping in 25-35pts/yr. Not to say he can’t be better than that, but that’s what I think he’ll become with no "big" growth curve. This kid has anything close to a "big" growth curve, and he really has a solid solid shot at becoming the next Tyler Myers/Chara, whom he is ahead of development-wise right now at this age.

And that my friends, is why Dougie needs to be considered in the Top 5/6/whatever now. A d-man with 6’7’’ size, above-average mobility, intelligence, and average+ to above average puckmoving skills is an extreme rarity and a huge plus for a team that has him on all situations on-defense/defensively. My friends, Hamilton has just become a really safe pick with some very nice upside. He is interchangeable with a lot of the top prospects now, and I have zero problem with Garth picking him over another top forward right now.

I’ve critiqued Hamilton as hard as anybody here, and if there was ever a reason for him to have an excuse to be above average all around and not elite, it’s because he is still growing into his gigantic body and had a huge growth spurt this year.

With Huberdeu or Couturier there at 5, they had better go offense. We cant land any FA fowards, so we have to draft them. No?

Garth Snow has proven to me that he is more than capable of making great personnel moves, both in the draft and at the pro-level, and unlike the last psycho who ran this team, Garth is wise enough to delegate to the scouting and coaching staff to help make the right decisions…. Whomever we take, be it at 5 or if we move out of that spot, I will have the utmost faith Garth and Co. made a much better choice than I (or any other armchair GM) could…. I just can’t wait to find out who it is!

The skyrocketing stock of Uber Huber (Huberdeau) has changed the whole outlook of the top 5 picks this year.

At #5 the options can realistically be: Landeskog, Couturier, Larsson, Hamilton and of course Huberdeau. (Ryan Strome is the dark horse)

I rank them as follows:
1-Larsson
2-Landeskog
3-Couturier
4-Huberdeau
5-Hamilton
6-Strome

The draft can go so many different ways before Snow picks at #5
Scenarios:
RNH, Landeskog, Huberdeau, Larsson, ______(Couturier,Hamilton,Strome)
RNH, Huberdeau, Landeskog, Larsson, ______(Couturier,Hamilton,Strome)
RNH, Larsson, Huberdeau, Couturier, _______ (LANDESKOG, Hamilton, Strome)
Larsson, RNH, Huberdeau, Couturier,_______ (LANDESKOG, Hamilton, Strome)
RNH, Landeskog, Huberdeau, Couturier, ______(LARSSON, Hamilton, Strome)

My hope is that whoever they end up drafting is not on the team for 3-4 years, no matter how much they dominate juniors and then the AHL. This team is not in the same place they were when they drafted Bailey – Outside of the giant ? in the crease, the rest of this team, as stands, has the capability to make the playoffs. It’s time to let the prospects develop where they ought to develop – outside of the NHL. I’m not a fan of having Nino on the team next year, either, though that it seeming more and more likely.

There are a few guys on this team (guys like Comeau) that should still be given a couple of more years to prove themselves before they get pushed out the door by younger players. I’d rather not run the risk of losing a guy b/c you want your new toy in the lineup, when the guy you already have could still end up being better than a teenager who has but potential.

http://www.thescoutingreport.org/ohl-feature-niagara-ice-dogs-overview/

There’s a nice link for everyone to look at. From all the praise of this kid i did a little research. From what i saw, this kid molds his game after Jay Bouwmeester (he said it himself). Jay Bouwmeester is far from a crease clearing d-man. To me, Hamilton sounds like a taller version of all our other D prospects. I haven’t read anything to suggest he is a physical force or even plays that type of game. Maybe people are being mislead by his size, but he does not sound like the “crease clearing dman” this team needs (whether its on the team or in the system).

I love hammer and he was already our toughest dman last year. A lot of people are thinking Hamilton’s game will mirror Hamonic’s, (with Hamilton being more skilled) but i dont see that as being the case. For a 6’4" or whatever he is defensemen playing against 16-18 yr olds you’d be lucky if you could pull up a video of 2 hits he has thrown. Any video on him is of a goal he scored. I thought we wanted a big mean dman back there? Arent Oleksiak and Siemens more suitable to fill the role we are looking for?

There are very few kids who storm the league in their rookie seasons as 16 yr olds. If you look at most kids stats, they have that first year where their stats are extremely pale in comparison to their sophomore year. This is prob due in part to them being rookies and a lot probably has to do with ice time. These are still kids and its most likely a huge jump playing in a league like the ohl (which is organized and structured as if it were an NHL team) from whatever organized hockey they were playing before. Looking at Couturier, this past season was actually his 3rd. His rookie season’s #‘s were not great. Maybe this is why so many people are jumping him in the rankings. What impressed me with researching Huberdeau is that, obviously he won the championship and was the MVP, but he was one of the top scorers in the reg season, his PIM were a little high for a player with his skill set (which to me suggests he plays with some grit and passion) and his #’s throughout the whole playoffs were amazing. Almost a goal per game. Couturier’s playoff #‘s were not nearly as impressive as Huberdeau’s. Still would take either over Hamilton.