The start of the NHL season is when hope springs eternal for every franchise in the league. Grizzled veterans ready for another shot at glory, shiny new free agent signings looking to prove their worth, and fresh-faced youngsters hoping to make an impact on the big club all seem so full of promise at this time of year.
The situation is no different for the Vancouver Canucks, who are looking to turn the page over to a new core of players. After parting with a number of long-time veterans, the club has opened up opportunities for its prospects, starting with Bo Horvat (who is looking to be a heck of a player) last season and continuing with Jake Virtanen (who has yet to suit up in a regular season game) and Jared McCann (who scored his first NHL goal Oct. 10 against Calgary). These are all big name, first round prospects with high expectations, and their progressions appear to be on target.
However, lost in the shuffle of the Canucks prospect pool was defenseman Ben Hutton, who had quietly plied his trade with the University of Maine before turning pro last season. For those who hadn’t been paying attention, Hutton seemingly came out of nowhere to make the Canucks this season, however the signs of a potential top-four dman at the NHL level had been there for years.
Drafted in the 5th round, 147th overall back in 2012 (a bit of a reach, as he was ranked 200th among North American skaters by Central Scouting), Hutton chose to go the college route and joined Maine for the 2012-13 season. He finished third on the club in scoring that season, but took a huge step forward in his sophomore campaign with 15 goals in 35 games, a number that lead all NCAA blueliners and earned Hutton All-Hockey East First Team honors. He also proved his power play acumen that season, as 12 of his 29 points came with the man advantage. After a bit of a lull last season with the Black Bears (largely driven by the team around him diving in quality), Hutton made the jump to Utica, scoring one goal in four games.
While his college career was impressive, how does a player ranked as low as 15th on the Canucks prospect list by Hockey’s Future as recently as this past August make the jump to the NHL so quickly?
First, the Canucks had to make a spot on the blueline for Hutton to try to earn, which they did when they shipped franchise stalwart Kevin Bieksa to the Anaheim Ducks over the summer. That created a battle between Luca Sbisa, Yannick Weber, Frankie Corrado and Hutton for the bottom pairing role, and with Sbisa and Weber being the known commodities, the battle ultimately came down to Corrado and Hutton for the number seven spot.
What happened next is really quite simple: Hutton had such a strong showing during training camp and the preseason that the Canucks had no choice but to waive Corrado (there were rumors that Corrado wasn’t going to get a chance under Canucks Head Coach Willie Desjardins anyways, but the solid fact is the he was simply outplayed by Hutton). Corrado ended up in Toronto, while Hutton found himself on the opening night roster.
So far this season, Hutton hasn’t done anything to indicate the club made the wrong choice. Through three games the Ontario native has two assists while averaging 18:09 of ice time per game, including 2:20 on the power play, tops among all Canucks defenders.
More importantly though, he’s provided something from the back-end that the Canucks haven’t seen from one of their blueline prospects in years. Hutton possesses an uncanny ability to transition the puck up ice, either by making a smart pass or using his impressive stride to simply skate the puck out of trouble. The converted forward also shows great promise on the offensive side of things, where his presence has added some pop to the Canucks second power play unit – one that has been a largely useless and cobbled together group over the past few years.
While Hutton is sure to struggle at points this season, as is to be expected from a 22-year-old blueliner, early returns are extremely positive in regards to his potential at this level and he looks to be a solid piece of the Canucks defense moving forward. At the very least, Hutton won’t be overlooked anymore.
Main Photo:
