from George Johnson of the Calgary Herald,
A year into his tenure, Treliving arrived at this draft armed with a whack of of draft-pick chips to ante and sizeable cap space to play with.
As it turns out, he exploited those assets to full advantage.
“There was a little wrestling back and forth (with Boston GM Don Sweeney),” Treliving said in Florida. “(Draft picks) are important assets. But I look at this as part of our plan going into the deadline — to get additional picks. To me, just looking at the landscape with the cap the way we figured it could be, we thought there might be opportunities and second-round picks would be good capital as you get closer to the draft.
“I’d like to have another one of those second(-round picks) back, but Donnie pushed hard on the deal. At the end of the day, we think it’s fair. We’re excited to get the player.”
Now, folks, understand: This is a 22-year-old Dougie Hamilton, not a 22-year-old Doug(ie) Harvey. Still, he’s a Top 4 NHL defenceman, in his early 20s, whose potential for improvement, particularly inside the sort of incubation environment head coach Bob Hartley has managed to cultivate here, is positively lip-smacking.
With man-mountain Zdeno Chara now 38 and Johnny Boychuk dealt away, Hamilton had been tentatively pencilled in as the B’s next linchpin defenceman, fully worthy of his ninth overall selection in the 2011 draft. He’d posted up a blueline-high 42 points in 72 games for the Bruins last season.
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