Breaking: Dougie Hamilton on the trading block just weeks before free agency.

The National Hockey League offseason has not yet officially gotten underway, but on Monday morning we got word of what will likely be one of this offseasons big stories when it was revealed that Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton is very likely on his way out of town.

Two NHL insiders are now reporting that the Hurricanes have granted Hamilton, and his agent J.P. Barry, permission to speak to other teams around the league in an effort to work out what could potentially be a sign and trade scenario. The first report on this front came from NHL insider Elliotte Friedman who revealed that Hamilton had in fact been given permission to speak with rival organizations effective immediately.

That report was quickly followed up by another report from NHL insider Darren Dreger who not only confirmed Friedman's report, but added that Hamilton's agent had received permission on Sunday to begin looking around the league for offers for his client.

At the time of this writing the Hurricanes currently hold Hamilton's rights in the NHL and are the only team in the league that could offer him the maximum term of 8 years on a new deal, but Hamilton has already played out the final year of his deal and is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. By trading his rights away the Hurricanes could ensure some small return for Hamilton instead of losing him for nothing, while any team making such a move would no doubt be able to lower the average annual value (AAV) on Hamilton's next contract by adding an extra year of term. This is especially important in the current climate of the NHL given that the salary cap is expected to remain flat for a number of years, making a more manageable cap hit carry more value than ever before in the cap era of the NHL.

There's been no word yet on who Hamilton or his camp are currently in talks with, and Friedman has indicated that it remains a possibility Hamilton could return to Carolina if he doesn't like the offers that he sees out there on the open market. I will say though, given that the Hurricanes are granting permission to talk to other teams I do believe that Hamilton has played his last game for the Hurricanes.