The New Jersey Devils are seeking a trade for defenseman Dougie Hamilton. His agent, J.P. Barry, told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun on Saturday that Hamilton won’t be in the Devils’ lineup now that Johnathan Kovacevic is available to play.

“Dougie was informed today that he will not be playing now that Kovacevic is back in the lineup,” Barry said. “In our view, this decision is all about business rather than his game right now. 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.”

Hamilton, 32, is in the fifth year of a seven-year, $63 million contract signed with the Devils in July 2021, carrying a $9 million cap hit. The defenseman has five goals and 10 points in 40 games played but ranks seventh in shot attempts per game among defensemen at five-on-five, according to MoneyPuck.com, trailing Zach Werenski, Jakob Chychrun and Brandon Montour, among others.

“We just put (Simon) Nemec back in the lineup on Thursday,” Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald told The Athletic over text. “He’s a young guy who we want getting his game back, where he had been easily our best defenseman before his injury. (Brett) 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.”

On Saturday, one day before the Devils’ afternoon game against the Winnipeg Jets, Hamilton was skating alongside Colton White as a fourth-pair defender at practice. Kovacevic, who has yet to play a game this season after offseason knee surgery, skated alongside Jonas Siegenthaler on the Devils’ second pair.

“He’s feeling good,” Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Kovacevic. “Today’s practice was an important one to get a good feel of where he’s at and make the determination if he’ll travel, or not, with us. He is going to travel. If he wakes up feeling good, then the intention is to have him play. And then Dougie’s the odd man out.”

The Devils have three wins in their last 10 games and are hoping to stop a three-game skid Sunday against the Jets.