Red Wings Sign Former Senators Defenseman

Hamonic will play in his 16th NHL season during the 2025-2026 campaign. The 35-year-old defender has amassed 900 NHL games playing with the New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Senators.

There were questions surrounding Hamonic’s NHL future after this past season ended. Following the Senators being eliminated from the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, he expressed his desire and drive to keep playing in the NHL. He also admitted to that being outside of his control, regardless of his desire to play.

“I think every guy, even when they're retired, 70-years-old, wants to play, right,” he told reporters following the end of the 2024-2025 campaign. “So, I think the hunger inside of a player to play is always there. You always want to play, that's the thing. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. The motivation still burns deeply.”

Last year, Hamonic played in 59 regular season games with the Senators. He recorded one goal and six assists for seven points, but was a -16 while averaging 17:04 minutes of ice time.

What Hamonic still brings is physicality and shot blocking. Over his 59 regular season contests, he blocked 92 shots. That’s an average of 1.56 blocked shots per game. He also chipped in 73 registered hits.

The big knock against Hamonic, especially at this stage of his career, is his impact at even strength. Never one of the fastest skaters at his position, he’s lost a step from that. That limits his ability to move the puck and get in on dump ins in his own zone, only hindering his impact at 5-on-5.

The advanced data from his 2024-2025 season backs up this struggle at even strength. According to MoneyPuck’s data, the Senators were a drastically better team with Hamonic off the ice at 5-on-5. The expected goal percentage with Hamonic on the ice was 41.4%, but with Hamonic off the ice, the Senators' expected goal percentage rose to 52.5%.

The on and off-ice goal differential also speaks volumes. With Hamonic on the ice at even strength, the Senators’ goal differential was an abysmal -34. It was the sixth consecutive season that his team's goal differential with him on the ice was negative. What that suggests is the Senators were routinely creating more quality scoring chances and surrendering less quality scoring chances against when Hamonic was on the bench.

The Red Wings hope the veteran addition outweighs any poor on-ice metrics. That may or may not happen, but the blue line depth was added to as the Detroit Red Wings try to finalize the roster they will bring into the preseason.