Player Discussion Travis Hamonic (D)

[bicboi64]

You can't simplify it that much. It's not charity if there is no better option. If JBD or Guenette don't outplay Hamonic or if there are injuries to the right side what do you propose we do?

A passable 3rd pairing RD, should we need one, is not just marinating somewhere in the system for us to call up and the guys being discarded for cheap by other teams are not locks to be any better than even last year's Hamonic.

Like it or not but Hamonic could very well be our best option for a good portion of games this year.

I'd rather JBD, Addison, or literally anyone in our system who isn't as slow as Hamonic. He's literally too slow to use his "physicality" effectively and at that point I'd rather gamble on anyone else.

 

[TheNewEra]

You can't simplify it that much. It's not charity if there is no better option. If JBD or Guenette don't outplay Hamonic or if there are injuries to the right side what do you propose we do?

A passable 3rd pairing RD, should we need one, is not just marinating somewhere in the system for us to call up and the guys being discarded for cheap by other teams are not locks to be any better than even last year's Hamonic.

Like it or not but Hamonic could very well be our best option for a good portion of games this year.

I do agree that if Hamonic is the best option he should play. However if he is the best option we are screwed.

That being said, we are banking on an older player coming off knee surgery to recover and play hockey at the nhl level. It is fully charity when we had the option to buy him out especially when logic says we should have bought him out and had cap to work with to sign a proper dman. This signing would have occurred before the cousins signing which would have given us roughly 2 million to address the issue. And as much as i love adding cousins because he is a shit disturber i would have rather upgraded that slot, especially to insulate Kleven.

A lot of people are going to say that this is too big of a rant for a #6 dman, but our defense defensively was ass, our RD depth is crap where its zub, hoping Jensen can bounce back and yeah. So its fully charity that he is still on the team but yes if he plays games it is because he has most likely outperformed the rest which is extremely concerning.

 

[PlayersLtd]

I do agree that if Hamonic is the best option he should play. However if he is the best option we are screwed.

That being said, we are banking on an older player coming off knee surgery to recover and play hockey at the nhl level. It is fully charity when we had the option to buy him out especially when logic says we should have bought him out and had cap to work with to sign a proper dman. This signing would have occurred before the cousins signing which would have given us roughly 2 million to address the issue. And as much as i love adding cousins because he is a shit disturber i would have rather upgraded that slot, especially to insulate Kleven.

A lot of people are going to say that this is too big of a rant for a #6 dman, but our defense defensively was ass, our RD depth is crap where its zub, hoping Jensen can bounce back and yeah. So its fully charity that he is still on the team but yes if he plays games it is because he has most likely outperformed the rest which is extremely concerning.

I can get behind not buying him out having a charity component to it but that's not always the best way to treat people within the organization and doing the right thing does count for something.

I think the team sees Hamonic as having a future in Ottawa as a player development guy. All signs are sort of pointing to that with what he has said since coming here. To get the most out of that future role you have to treat these guys with respect and let them build a certain history with the team.

If the cost of that is the difference between buying him out or simply parking him for a big chunk of the season than maybe it's the right choice. Keeping him gives you the added benefit of having a vet around or being pleasantly surprised at how he could rebound, post surgery.

Hamonic is a whipping boy of sorts but he's more useful than people give him credit for, all things considered. I'm not trying to ignore how bad he can be but it's within the realm of possibility that he earns 50% of the games over JBD this year Hamonic of 22-23 was ok and that was in a particularly terrible team situation. When people suggest Addison is a better bet for the bottom pair it goes to show how selective we can be.