How do you know that? Hamilton his entire career has been a weird egg in locker rooms and never really found a fit/home until he got to the canes. If you know everything you just stated than he and his agent know this things as well. The canes telling them to find out what they can do elsewhere and compare it to what only the canes can offer in the form of an 8 year deal doesnt really hurt them. It's not like they only have limited cap space to spend. If he goes out and says I know I can get 54x7 from two teams and the canes say we will come up to 60x8 and they get a deal than how does it really hurt anyone. They have the 8th year leverage and they know he will be in demand, so what, they still have the hammer of the 8th year to use as leverage. he's turning 28 in a few days, 7 years takes him to 35 after which he isn't getting paid a ton per year anyways, so getting an 8th year at big ish dollars is an X factor only the canes have to use here