Just in case anyone is wondering how some of the rest of the hockey world view the situation with Dougie ... here's a take from Ryan Lambert (Puck Soup pod and newsletter, Elite Prospects, former Puck Daddy writer). Excerpt with permission:
There are two notable UFAs who seem absolutely destined to hit the market this summer, and one of them (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) seems fairly boring. Wow he's gonna get $6.5 million against the cap for five years to be a mediocre No.2 center somewhere. Cool.
But it's rare that a defenseman of Dougie Hamilton’s quality hits the market. This dude is giving me serious Zdeno Chara “franchise changing signing” vibes and I bet he gets $9 million somewhere. I kinda think it won't be Carolina, but mostly because there's gonna be a line around the block for him.
Price aside, there isn’t a single team that doesn’t benefit from adding a Dougie Hamilton right now. And while he has a bit of an injury history (in freak circumstances, rather than a chronic issue) that’s not the sort of thing teams should really shy away from. For me this is one of the few UFAs you ship someone out just to acquire.
This is me eating popcorn about where Hamilton signs. That team, whoever they are, is gonna get so much better.
Not everybody agree with this, obviously ... since Dougie is perhaps the most polarizing player in the NHL. That said, half the league DOES feel this way, and that's enough. Here's reality for the Canes. If they can't get Dougie signed or at least get him verbally agreeable pretty quickly, then they pretty much have to explore what they can get for his rights. I know how popular that kind of move would be locally, but you cannot completely whiff on any value you can get from the asset, unless you're danged certain he'll re-sign.