Freddie Hamilton is uniquely situated on the Flames. He has the same name his brother does, but not his title of core player, nor his talent; he’s not about to take command any time soon. F.Ham is what he is: a decent replacement-level player who likely is given a little more thought than someone else of similar ability would be because, well, his brother is Dougie Hamilton.
But the evidence does not suggest he’s in the NHL solely because of his familial relationship to his teammate. The older Hamilton is a capable hockey player in his own right, even if, at 25 years of age, this was the first full season he’d spent in the NHL – one in which he played just 26 games, at that.