Hamilton Comes from Strong Family Background I FEATURE

Lynn Hamilton has seen a lot in her time as an elite athlete and mother of two NHL hockey players. Throw in her husband Doug's career as an Olympic rower, lawyer and sports executive, and it's not hard to imagine the collection of medals, baubles and trinkets that occupy the basement of the family home in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Asked to pick her favorite, it took a while.
"Probably the bronze medal from the world junior when the boys played together," said Lynn Hamilton, of the 2012 World Junior Championship where Freddie and Dougie Hamilton were teammates. "...but it's the men in the house that (pay more attention), I leave that to them."
The Devils
signing of Dougie Hamilton this week made waves
- it was one of the
most notable acquisitions of the annual free agent derby
. Dig deeper, and it was a bit serendipitous: Hamilton is the son of two Olympians, inking a long-term contract while the Games were going on in Tokyo.
Talk about striking gold of a different sort.

Moreover, if it not for the Olympics, life could have been quite different for the former Lynn Polson (and the Devils) because she first met her future husband at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Lynn Hamilton was the starting point guard on the Canadian women's basketball team that finished fourth. Doug Hamilton won bronze as part of Canada's men's quad in rowing. A year later, Doug was part of a world champion boat, while Lynn won world championship bronze in 1986. Doug also participated in the 1988 Olympics.
It was not long after that Lynn and Doug were married and the boys arrived in quick succession starting with Freddie on New Year's Day in 1992, and then Dougie, 18 months later.
Freddie played 75 NHL games for four different clubs after being drafted by the San Jose Sharks. He retired a few years ago and recently finished his undergraduate degree. He's soon off to Yale to do his MBA.
"Dougie has always had the perfect role model," Lynn said in reference to the hockey example Freddie set for Dougie. She could have been talking about academics too: both boys won scholastic player of the year awards in junior hockey, where they were teammates with the Niagara IceDogs.

For Dougie, his physical transformation has always been accompanied by a cerebral approach.
"With Dougie, he wanted an explanation of how to do things," said Marty Williamson, his coach with the IceDogs, "he really thought-out the process, to think the game."
Bryan Deasley likes to tell a story of first meeting the Hamilton family. Now Senior VP of Iceberg Analytics, back then he was working as an agent and pitching the family to represent the boys as Freddie was about to enter the Ontario Hockey League.
"The parents were very clear that I was there to speak with both of them," remembers Deasley, who played hockey at University of Michigan and was a first-round pick (19th overall) of the Calgary Flames in 1987.
"Dougie had his laptop; he had researched all the equipment being used by all the top NHL players at the time. It was a bit like how now you hear that goalies research the tendencies of all the top players to get a read on how to play them. Incredible. The kid was incredible, even back then."

A few years later, Hamilton, both literally and figuratively, grew into an elite prospect. He twice played for Canada at the World Junior and he and Freddie were part of an OHL finalist. He was named Canadian Hockey League defenseman of the year in the season before turning pro (the Devils Ty Smith won the same award in 2019).
Hamilton was still growing when the Boston Bruins picked him ninth overall a decade ago.
"You'd have to check the programs from year to year, but he's grown a couple inches since he went to Boston," said Lynn, of her son, who has now topped out at 6-6.
Now 28, Dougie has stopped growing but his
steady rise to become an elite NHL defenseman
has been consistent since breaking into the league in 2013. Regularly discussed among potential Norris Trophy candidates, Hamilton is also an Olympic hopeful for Team Canada, if NHLers go to Beijing next year.
In his media call on Thursday, Hamilton allowed that it was his "dream" to win the Stanley Cup but was hesitant to get into discussions about individual accolades.

His mom, of course, would be thrilled if Dougie became the third Olympian in her family but offered her own analysis.
"You can't really control (the performance) of others," said Lynn, "or who makes those decisions, or what they are thinking. A lot of (consideration) goes into that, (besides) who would have known that (2021 Norris winner) Adam Fox was going to have such a great season this year?"
Later, Lynn put her son's hockey accomplishments more succinctly.
"All this NHL stuff, it still doesn't seem real to us."
One thing is very real: Dougie Hamilton comes from an extensive line of achievers beyond the rink. The die was already cast before his parents' sporting accomplishments. The original Fred Hamilton - the boys' great-grandfather - was a standout amateur baseball player while growing up in Toronto smack-dab in between where Maple Leaf Gardens and Scotiabank Arena now stands. Though he lacked formal education, he later became a Toronto alderman and created a program for underprivileged kids to watch Leafs games at the newly built Gardens in the 1930s and 40s. The city later named a park after him.
His son, also Fred Hamilton, became a leading Toronto lawyer and was instrumental in his firm's support that helped bring the Indy Car race that still takes place in the city. Fred Hamilton, his firm's partner emeritus, turns 90 later this year.
Doug Hamilton followed his father's path into law and is now retired but remains active as a sports executive. He's currently Chair of the 2022 Canada Games, the latest of a few senior positions he's held over the years.
"The parents, his family always made sure things were right on track," remembers Williamson, clearly an understatement.
Deasley offered a different analogy:
"Dougie is the type of guy you'd like to see date your daughter. He's a gentleman."