Rumor: Dougie Hamilton will miss a significant portion of the playoffs.

It sounds like the Carolina Hurricanes have suffered a major loss just days prior to the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

First, according to a report from Hurricanes insider Sara Civian of The Athletic it sounds like defenseman Dougie Hamilton has suffered a serious injury to his leg. Civian reports that according to her sources the injury is not related to the broken leg Hamilton had previously suffered earlier in the season but we have no more details to go on than that as it pertains to the injury itself. What we do know however is that this injury is a serious, Civian reports that Hamilton will be out "weeks" due to the injury although she suggests it could have been months which I suppose makes this something of a silver lining. 

We are, at the time of this writing, just one week away from the return of meaningful games as the Stanley Cup Qualifying Round is set to begin on the 1st of August. This means that the Hurricanes will now be without Hamilton for the start of the playoffs and furthermore it could mean that Hamilton will miss the postseason entirely depending on how well or how poorly his team performs moving forward. Hamilton looked like one of the league's top defenseman prior to suffering thay broken leg in January and the fact that the Hurricanes will once again be without him has to be a bitter pill for both the organization and its fans to swallow. The news is especially devastating given that Hamilton would have no doubt played a huge role in shutting down some of the dynamic offensive players they will be facing when they take on the Rangers during the Qualifying Round, players like Rangers star forward Artemi Panarin and rookie forward Kaapo Kakko. 

Many oddsmakers already viewed this as one of the closest series in the aforementioned Qualifying Round, with most viewing the Hurricanes as a slight favorite, but you have to wonder now if the loss of a core player like Hamilton will tip the scales. The loss of Hamilton is also compounded by the fact that Brett Pesce will also be sidelined with Civian reporting that he could potentially return in September should the Hurricanes still be competing in the playoffs.