Public clash between NHL Agent and GM after controversial healthy scratch on Saturday.

The New Jersey Devils organization has been dealing with it's fair share of controversy since the fallout of the Quinn Hughes trade, a trade that many fans in New Jersey believed would be made by their team instead of the Minnesota Wild, and that may have reached its peak on Saturday.

Many believe that the Devils' attempts to acquire Hughes were blocked by one or more players with trade protection in their contracts, with many speculating that Dougie Hamilton could be that player. On Saturday, the Devils made a move that seemed to lend credibility to that speculation when they made the surprising decision to make Hamilton a healthy scratch.

Hamilton is a very well seasoned NHL defenseman with 875 games of NHL experience already under his belt which makes the decision a curious one. It could be viewed as retaliatory in nature, and it would seem based on the comments from Hamilton's agent that this may indeed be the case.

"Dougie was informed today that he will be not be playing now that Kovacevic is back in the lineup. In our view, this decision is all about business rather than his game right now," said Hamilton's agent J.P. Barry. "Singling him out seems very calculated at this stage.Dougie has a 10-team trade list and there have been efforts to trade him going back to the draft last year. We have made it clear to the Devils that we will consider teams outside our list and other creative ways to get to a team that is mutually acceptable."

This has in turn prompted a response from the New Jersey Devils with general manager Tom Fitzgerald very clearly taking a shot at the comments from Barry.

"As you know, we just put Nemec back in the lineup on Thursday," said Fitzgerald in a statement. "He’s a young guy who we want getting his game back, where he had been easily our best defensemen before his injury. Pesce’s play speaks for itself, he isn’t going anywhere. And Kovacevic coming back, gives our roster a spark we are looking for, and he was our best defensive defenseman all of last year. And that’s what we want with our lineup now. This is simply Dougie being the odd-man out with where our right-side is- fully healthy for the first time all year. This is business. Business of our lineup!"

These two sides appear to be headed towards a very ugly divorce.