It would have been a "tight squeeze" but Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson is adamant the Hawks could have kept beloved stalwarts Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis in addition to acquiring star recruits Jaeger O'Meara and Tom Mitchell.

Sam Mitchell was traded to West Coast and Jordan Lewis to Melbourne in surprising moves that astonished the footy world last year. But on Tuesday morning, Clarkson said the Hawks' salary cap could have accommodated the two veterans and two young stars, and that recruitment pitches to O'Meara and Tom Mitchell had centred on learning their craft from the likes of Sam Mitchell and Lewis.

"Yeah, we would have been pretty tight, but we would have been able to," Clarkson told SEN.

"There's no point trying to trick anyone that our salary cap would have been really tight had we tried to squeeze them all in but we would have got there.