When the Boston Bruins traded Phil Kessel to the Toronto Maple Leafs back in 2009 for a pair first round draft picks and later used them to select Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton, it was expected those two players would be the cornerstones of their organization for at least the next decade.
Now, just a few years later, they're both gone.
The Bruins traded Hamilton to the Calgary Flames on Friday just hours ahead of the NHL draft in exchange for the Flames' 2015 first round pick (No. 15 overall) and two 2015 second round picks (No. 45 and 52).
Hamilton, a restricted free agent, is set to get a significant pay raise, one that the Bruins didn't seem comfortable giving him. There was also a concern that the Bruins might be vulnerable to a potential offer sheet given their current salary cap situation which would have resulted in nothing but a couple of future draft picks if they did not (or could not ) match it.
Instead, they traded him for ... draft picks. This continues the Bruins' decade long tradition of trading young star players as Hamilton joins a list that includes Joe Thornton, Phil Kessel and Seguin.
The Flames will him add to a defense that already has one of the best top pairings in the NHL in Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie. Add Hamilton to that mix, who is only 22 and already a rising star in the league, and they have what should be one of the best trios in the NHL on the blue line to go with a young crop of forwads led by Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Sam Bennett.
The trade of Hamilton comes just two years after the Bruins traded the other key player in the Kessel trade, Seguin, to the Dallas Stars for a package that included Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, and Joe Morrow, which in hindsight has been an extremely underwhelming return for one of the top offensive players in the league that is still probably just reaching his prime.
And now they're left hoping a bunch of draft picks pan out to get something in exchange for Hamilton.
In 72 games this past season Hamilton took a huge step forward in his development and finished with 10 goals and 32 points. In 178 career games over three years he has 22 goals and 61 assists.
