The San Jose Sharks have shown some major promise this season. They’ve fallen off a bit from their highs earlier within the 12 months. Nonetheless, they entered the NHL’s Olympic break sitting just five points out of the West’s final Wild Card spot. The Sharks have a probability to make some noise coming out of the Olympics on the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.
What general manager Mike Grier elects to do actually stays to be seen. Nonetheless, the Sharks have an obvious trade candidate this season. And it is a player the team attempted to accumulate in the course of the summer before the puck dropped on the 2025-26 campaign.
The Sharks attempted to make a trade for defenseman Dougie Hamilton in the summertime, as first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. On the time, Hamilton exercised his no-trade clause and blocked the deal. Because of this, he remained with the Recent Jersey Devils to start the 2025-26 NHL season.
Now, the tables have flipped. The Devils are outside of the Stanley Cup Playoff race, and are farther from a playoff spot despite having more points than the Sharks. San Jose still has a necessity for a top-pairing defenseman. And the Devils try their best to trade Hamilton sooner quite than later.
There may be actually still a possibility Hamilton blocks a trade to the Sharks again. Nonetheless, San Jose should make one other run at this once more. Listed below are a pair reasons the Sharks must attempt to pry Dougie Hamilton away from the Recent Jersey Devils before the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.
Dougie Hamilton can run San Jose’s defense
The Devils need to trade Hamilton for a number of reasons. Nonetheless, his production on the ice is not one in all them. Though his offense is a bit down this 12 months, he has consistently scored within the 40-50 point range throughout his profession. And it wasn’t way back that he scored 22 goals and 77 points for the Devils as they made the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Hamilton can also be a contributor on the defensive end. In all situations, he owns the second-best Goals Against Per 60 Minutes amongst Recent Jersey defensemen, in keeping with Evolving Hockey. He has also allowed the second-lowest Corsi against per 60 minutes amongst Devils defenders.
These numbers aren’t aided by special teams, either. Hamilton is a powerful asset at 5v5. He still owns the second-best Goals Against Per 60 at 5v5, and he’s one in all three Devils defenders with an expected Goals For Percentage north of fifty%. Irrespective of the situation, Hamilton may be trusted.
The Sharks need a player like this leading their blueline. He may be a useful asset for among the young defensemen on the roster and coming through the ranks in San Jose’s pipelines. And he generally is a stabilizing presence for young goaltender Yaroslav Askarov.
San Jose has the picks, prospects, and cap space to make this work. Actually, there’s a probability they may make this work without truly mortgaging their future. He matches their team, and the prospect to compete for the postseason could appeal to Hamilton across the NHL Trade Deadline.
Sharks can gain ground in wide-open West
Hamilton matches the Sharks when it comes to need. Nonetheless, being outside of the playoff race makes things a bit complicated. Should the Sharks hand over future assets when their playoff qualification is way from a guarantee? On this instance, the Sharks should absolutely pull the trigger here.
The Sharks are playing in a quite wide-open conference. The West is amazingly top-heavy, with the Stanley Cup contenders having already separated themselves. Nonetheless, outside of the highest contenders, there’s a variety of room for a team within the West to leap up and make noise.
The Sharks have proven they’ll play good hockey this season. Macklin Celebrini has emerged as a real superstar on this league. He’s a real Hart Trophy candidate. And the Sharks should do what they’ll to get him into the playoffs.
The difficulty is that he cannot do that alone. Celebrini is doing a variety of the heavy lifting here for San Jose. He entered the Olympic break with 81 points on the season. The following closest point scorer for the Sharks? Will Smith with 39 points.
Hamilton may not close that time gap. But his ability to maneuver the puck and distribute could give other players a probability to attain more. If the forwards around Celebrini can start scoring, this Sharks team could possibly be very dangerous.
Trading for Hamilton would help the Sharks gain ground within the West. It might also give them a player who can contribute for multiple seasons, as he is not a free agent until 2028. This is able to be a house run move to set the Sharks as much as contend for a few seasons beyond the 2025-26 NHL season.