The hockey world was a bit surprised when the Boston Bruins dealt away 22-year-old defenceman Dougie Hamilton in a trade with the Calgary Flames before the start of the 2015 NHL Draft.
However, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said it was an obvious move for the club once they could not come to terms with Hamilton on a contract extension.
“(We) extended Dougie (Hamilton) a very significant offer,” Sweeney told reporters in a scrum on Friday. “And it didn’t lead us to where we thought we’d be able to be comfortable with him part of our group long term.”
Sweeney was concerned that Hamilton, who is scheduled to be a restricted free agent on July 1, would have gotten a large offer sheet from another club that the Bruins wouldn’t have been able to match. Instead, Boston preferred to trade him for a package of draft picks that was better than the compensation on an offer sheet would have been.
Boston also dealt veteran forward Milan Lucic to the Los Angeles Kings for a package that included the 13th pick in the 2015 draft, so the Bruins now own three straight picks in the middle of the Friday night’s first round (picks 13-15).