Boston Bruins: What Will World Juniors Tell Everyone About Dougie Hamilton?

Nearly half of the Boston Bruins’ current roster is comprised of IIHF World Junior Championship alumni. Based on their present-day roles, some of the more intriguing members of that list are Andrew Ference and Daniel Paille. Two outstanding exceptions include Tyler Seguin and Tim Thomas.

The long and short lesson therein is that this illustrious post-Christmas tournament for prospects age 20 and under is hardly a tell-all as to the ripples anyone will make in the NHL. So when prospective Boston blueliner Dougie Hamilton suits up for Team Canada next week, Bruins buffs with a thirst for the future should moderate their investments even more than their eggnog consumption.

That said, the WJC has garnered and sustained its reputation for a reason, or rather, a perpetually growing multitude of reasons. Two prime reasons currently wearing Bruins attire are Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, who keyed a gold-medal run for Canada in 2005 and 2008, respectively, then scored two goals apiece in Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup finals.

As a 19-year-old in the 2004-05 lockout year, Bergeron led all tournament participants with a 5-8-13 scoring log in seven games. That included an assist on the eventual clincher and an insurance power-play strike in a 6-1 trouncing of Russia in the championship tilt.

When Marchand won his second straight WJC gold medal in the 2007-08 season, he tallied a goal and an assist in Canada’s 3-2 title game victory over Sweden.

Technically, the WJC performances of those future linemates and their role in cementing Boston’s triumph last spring should be tagged in the coincidence file. Plenty of hockey heroes have logged only one or the other on their resumes.

Even so, it is tough to dismiss their mere participation in that tournament and their victorious experience as a non-factor in honing and/or revealing their big game aptitude. And for what it’s worth, Marchand was consistently a greater impact throughout last season than his fellow rookie Seguin, who broke into the NHL with no major international experience.

Seguin, who preceded him as the Bruins’ first-round draft choice by a year, is evidence that Hamilton did not necessarily need to make the Canadian cut to excite Boston fans for his eventual arrival. But now that he has, and especially on the heels of completing his entry-level contract, he might as well use the opportunity to advance his portfolio.

In his third season with the Niagara Ice Dogs, Hamilton―who will be joined in the WJC by fellow Bruins draftees Brian Ferlin of the United States and Alexander Khokhlachev of Russia―is already making a case to crack Boston’s roster no later than next October.

Hamilton is the most productive defenseman in the Ontario League with 45 points, including 12 goals to match his major junior career high with the season half over. With a line like that, one could argue that he needs a slightly greater challenge to keep his repertoire fresh, even if it is for a two-week period at midseason.

He should get just that when he tries to help a proud nation reclaim a gold medal that has eluded it in this tournament since 2009. And his role in that quest could set the tone as to where the Bruins decide to place him in the coming campaign.

Of the seven defensemen on Canada’s roster, Hamilton’s only company in the upper echelon of the production department is Brandon Gormley, a Phoenix Coyotes prospect with 75 points in 73 career games with the Moncton Wildcats.

Logically, those two will be leaned on the most heavily to fulfill the requisite production from the blue line. And when the Bruins deem Hamilton ready for an established roster spot, they will hope to reap similar rewards from him to accompany the blistering bullets of captain Zdeno Chara and the playmaking of Joe Corvo.

There is even an outside shot that, sooner rather than later, he could supplant Corvo, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

But even if another full year in Niagara is ordered for Hamilton in 2012-13, he is still 16 years younger than Chara and Corvo. Therefore, he currently represents the deep long-term future of a critical aspect of the Bruins’ game.

A noteworthy performance in this year’s WJC, playing amongst and against a vast host of fellow NHL aspirants, would lend extra credibility to that preordainment.