Dougie Hamilton or Mackenzie Weegar?

[Xirik]

Hamilton sucks.

Hamilton Beating the Canucks must have been very traumatizing for you.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Hamilton Beating the Canucks must have been very traumatizing for you.

I’ll rephrase.

I’ve never been sold on Hamilton being a top pairing defenseman. Weegar to me is a top pairing guy who is great in all 200ft of ice. Weegar may not be as great offensively as Hamilton but Weegar isn’t a slouch in that regard either and is by far the most complete.

I don’t think he “sucks” in that he’s trash like a Nurse or Trouba but as far as top pairing dman goes I do think he sucks as a top pairing defenseman.

He’s always been such a polarizing player to me. Great skating ability, tremendous scoring ability from the point, offensively gifted, has the size, but his low mental acuity, his inability to effectively use his size coupled with his general poor defensive hockey sense and lazy tendencies is frankly off putting.

To me he’s very much in the Matheson, Klingberg, Mike Green, Hronek category of OFD that aren’t really top pairing level but their minutes and usage gives the illusion that they are because of a set of circumstances such as not having a true all situations #1D, lack of defensive depth, or because they individually possess an isolated strength in either offensive or defensive ability that the team prioritizes.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Devils fan saying Weegar and someone who loves Dougie, Weegar is just a complete 200 ft animal and I think Dougie's injury from last year is gonna hamper him from being stable enough to ride out the rest of his career.

I’ll rephrase.

I’ve never been sold on Hamilton being a top pairing defenseman. Weegar to me is a top pairing guy who is great in all 200ft of ice. Weegar may not be as great offensively as Hamilton but Weegar isn’t a slouch in that regard either and is by far the most complete.

I don’t think he “sucks” in that he’s trash like a Nurse or Trouba but as far as top pairing dman goes I do think he sucks as a top pairing defenseman.

He’s always been such a polarizing player to me. Great skating ability, tremendous scoring ability from the point, offensively gifted, has the size, but his low mental acuity, his inability to effectively use his size coupled with his general poor defensive hockey sense and lazy tendencies is frankly off putting.

To me he’s very much in the Matheson, Klingberg, Mike Green, Hronek category of OFD that aren’t really top pairing level but their minutes and usage gives the illusion that they are because of a set of circumstances such as not having a true all situations #1D, lack of defensive depth, or because they individually possess an isolated strength in either offensive or defensive ability that the team needs.

Not totally off base, I think the Mike Green comparison is pretty damn bad. He's miles better than Green ever was defensively. Siegenthalar had a catastrophic year once Hamliton went down last year and so did the entire defensive core when they were borderline elite, top 3 unit in 22-23 with Hamilton eating a ton of minutes.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Devils fan saying Weegar and someone who loves Dougie, Weegar is just a complete 200 ft animal and I think Dougie's injury from last year is gonna hamper him from being stable enough to ride out the rest of his career.



Not totally off base, I think the Mike Green comparison is pretty damn bad. He's miles better than Green ever was defensively.

I’m not comparing them player to player, but grouping them in a category of similar types of OFD dman and the situations they were in.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

This is an interesting poll because both of these guys are much less effective in the playoffs. Weegar because of his lack of pace, and Hamilton because he's the softest 6'5 defenseman in the league.

Dougie right now this second might not be better than Weegar coming off a very serious injury, but if we're looking at his play last year and the year before, I think it's clear he's a superior defenseman.

He's got a rep for being bad defensively, but the numbers just don't show it. He plays a standard workload, and doesn't give up goals at a substandard rate, while driving possession metrics very strongly. He's prone to occasionally getting caught flatfooted because he's not a particularly great skater, and I think those are things that people remember, when his normal, boring, quality defensive play gets overlooked.

At the same cost, assuming some semblance of health, I'd take Dougie every time. And I like Weegar a lot.

Ironically, I think this is the best I've seen Hamilton play in my long history of watching Dougie Hamilton. The points haven't been there yet, but he's been significantly better defensively under Keefe.

Historically, he's had to be babysat in order to have success. Giordano, Slavin, Siegenthaler etc. This year in the first I've seen where he doesn't look like he needs a babysitter.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Siegenthalar had a catastrophic year once Hamliton went down last year and so did the entire defensive core

I don't think you can blame the fall off of Marino on Hamilton. And Siegenthaler was battling injuries for much of the year.

Hamilton played the first 20 games and the team wasn't exactly playing great even before his injury.

when they were borderline elite, top 3 unit in 22-23 with Hamilton eating a ton of minutes.

It was a pretty different group. We moved on from Graves and Severson.

Siegs - Hamilton
Graves - Marino
Bahl/Smith - Severson

vs

Bahl/Hughes - Marino
Siegs - Nemec
Hughes/Bahl - Smith/Miller

Bahl was a pretty big downgrade from 2022 Graves and we introduced 2 young rookies. It's a big chemistry change ignoring the Hamilton injury.