Just a couple of years ago, Canucks defenseman Ben Hutton was viewed as a key cog in their future plans. Fast forward to today and the 24-year-old is coming off a campaign where he failed to score a goal in 61 games and spent considerable time as a healthy scratch. Following their loss on Saturday, he acknowledged to Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province that “a restart button would be nice”.
While the implication in the article is that Hutton would welcome a fresh start with Vancouver next season after being called out on multiple occasions by head coach Travis Green, Botchford notes that many around the team have Hutton pegged as a possible trade candidate this summer. He carries a cap hit of $2.8MM through next year which also serves as his qualifying offer in June of 2019 and if his role doesn’t change with the Canucks for next season, he’d certainly be a non-tender candidate. Accordingly, it may make sense for the team to look to move him this offseason even though they’d be selling low.
More from around the league:
- The Predators are getting closer to getting one of their forwards back, potentially in time for the start of the playoffs. GM David Poile told reporters, including NHL.com’s Robby Stanley (Twitter link) that center Calle Jarnkrok is making progress and is now listed as day-to-day. The 26-year-old has been out for nearly a month due to an upper-body injury. His eventual return should boost an already-deep Nashville lineup that heads into the postseason as the Presidents’ Trophy winners.
- While many are wondering if the Senators will be spending big on a possible contract extension for defenseman Erik Karlsson, that’s not the only big-money decision they’ll have to make. Winger Mark Stone is heading for restricted free agency this summer and is coming off his third 60-plus point season in the past four years. What’s particularly noteworthy about that mark this year is that he recorded 62 points (20-42-62) in just 58 games. Accordingly, Postmedia’s Ken Warren speculates that a new deal for Stone could approach $8MM per year which would represent a significant jump on the $4.5MM salary he earned this season (with a cap hit of $3.5MM). He is one year away from unrestricted free agency eligibility so the team won’t be able to use multiple RFA years to lower the cap hit a little bit.
8 million for stone is nuts. hard worker? yes. Great hands? yes. put he has only been a ppg player this year. The ppg+ is great and all but when you only played 2/3 Of the season it doesn’t really mean all that much.
certainly 6.5 is deserving maybe even 6.75 but 8? He is not one of the top 15 players in the NHL. likely not even too 30
I think a bridge deal here would be perfect for both sides. $8m seems a tad high considering he’s never been healthy for a full season. A deal in the $6-7m range seems right but I doubt Ottawa is eager to give that type of money on a long term deal with the team entering a rebuild-ish phase. A two year deal in that salary range would be able to give Stone the money he deserves based on his production while the team isn’t forced to commit long term.