Michael Hutchinson

Michael Hutchinson Signs In Finland

November 12, 2024 at 9:01 am CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

Unrestricted free agent goaltender Michael Hutchinson has signed with SaiPa in Finland for the rest of the 2024-25 season, the Liiga club announced Tuesday.

Hutchinson, 34, attempted to continue his career stateside a couple of months ago on a professional tryout with the Devils but was unsuccessful. The move to Finland will mark his first time playing overseas and put a pause on his 14-year run in the North American pros with multiple NHL, AHL and ECHL clubs.

A third-round pick by the Bruins back in 2008, Hutchinson spent a few seasons playing for Boston’s minor-league affiliates but was non-tendered in the 2013 offseason before signing with the Jets. Hutchinson emerged as a legitimate NHL option in Winnipeg, finishing eighth in Calder Trophy voting in the 2014-15 season after recording a 21-10-5 record, .914 SV% and 2.38 GAA in 38 appearances.

Most of those numbers would stand as career-best, though. Hutchinson spent a few more seasons in Winnipeg as part of a three-goalie rotation with Ondřej Pavelec and a young Connor Hellebuyck before he was demoted to the minors for most of the 2017-18 campaign.

He never rebounded into being a full-time NHLer and instead embarked on a career worthy of the journeyman tag. Since 2018, Hutchinson has played spot duty for the Panthers, Maple Leafs, Avalanche, Blue Jackets, and Red Wings, suiting up primarily for those clubs’ AHL affiliates but often getting between one and 15 NHL starts per season.

The 6’3″ netminder spent last year with Detroit, making 33 saves on 36 shots in a loss to the Devils in late December 2023 in his only NHL appearance of the season. In the AHL for Grand Rapids, he struggled as the backup to top Red Wings prospect Sebastian Cossa, recording a .892 SV% and 2.89 GAA with a 14-14-3 record in 32 appearances.

At this age, a move overseas more than likely signals the end of Hutchinson’s NHL career. If so, he closes with a 57-62-18 record, six shutouts, a 2.94 GAA, and a .902 SV% in 154 games played in parts of 11 seasons. He also made four playoff appearances for the Avs in the 2020 bubble, recording a .910 SV% and 2.75 GAA.

Hutchinson will have the opportunity to take over as SaiPa’s starter after former Jets prospect Oskari Salminen, who appeared in 15 of their 20 games this season, abruptly left the team and signed with rival Liiga club JYP last week.

Devils Sign Jakub Zboril, Michael Hutchinson To PTOs

September 5, 2024 at 11:48 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 7 Comments

The Devils have officially signed defenseman Jakub Zboril and goaltender Michael Hutchinson to professional tryout agreements, the team announced today in a pair of press releases.

Zboril, the No. 13 overall pick by the Bruins in 2015, didn’t see any NHL action last season for the first time since 2019-20. He was waived following training camp and assigned to the AHL’s Providence Bruins, where he was limited to nine points and a -5 rating in 31 games before his nine-year tenure in the Boston organization ended in March.

After being shipped to the Blue Jackets in the trade deadline deal that saw Andrew Peeke head to the Bruins, Zboril posted four assists and a -2 rating in 15 games to end the season with Columbus’ AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. He wasn’t brought back after reaching unrestricted free agency this summer following the conclusion of the two-year, $2.28MM extension he signed to stay in Boston in 2022.

Now 27, Zboril has topped out as a top-four AHL defender or a fringe No. 7 option on an NHL roster. He has one goal, 15 assists, 16 points, and an even rating in 76 career appearances in parts of four seasons with the Bruins, averaging 15:38 per game. The 6’0″, 194-lb defender does play an effective physical game, but he hasn’t been a notable offensive option in the pros, even at the AHL level.

Hutchinson, 34, will provide veteran insurance between the pipes during camp to complement a trio of young, NHL-contracted depth netminders who will be jockeying for AHL and ECHL starts. He hasn’t been a full-time NHL option since the mid-2010s, but he has still made at least one appearance per year in a depth role for various teams.

He spent last season with the Red Wings, mostly with their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. But he did make one NHL start, ironically against the Devils, posting a .917 SV% in a loss on Dec. 23, 2023. He’s struggled in AHL action over the past few years, posting sub-.900 save percentages for three seasons in a row.

Neither player will compete earnestly for a spot on the Devils’ opening night roster. Instead, they’ll look to convert strong camp performances into two-way deals and land with New Jersey’s AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, for 2024-25 after likely passing through waivers unclaimed.

Red Wings Activate Alex Lyon, Assign Michael Hutchinson To AHL

December 29, 2023 at 6:57 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

While the three-goalie rotation still isn’t back yet with Ville Husso remaining on IR, the Red Wings did get their other injured netminder back. The team announced that they’ve activated Alex Lyon off IR; in a corresponding move, Michael Hutchinson was assigned to AHL Grand Rapids.

Lyon made a big impression down the stretch last season, briefly taking over as Florida’s starting netminder, including for a trio of playoff games. That allowed him to command a one-way deal in the summer, a nice raise for a player who had largely been a third-stringer before that. He signed a one-year deal with Detroit worth $900K and it seemed like he’d be destined to be with the Griffins and be called upon if and when injuries arose.

However, the Red Wings opted not to go that route, instead carrying three goalies on the roster for the whole season so far except for when one of them has been injured. As a result, playing time has been hard to come by for the 31-year-old who has made seven appearances so far. He has done quite well in those, posting a 2.14 GAA with a .932 SV%, and with James Reimer struggling at the moment, Lyon could now be in line for a bigger share of the workload.

As for Hutchinson, his season started on a PTO with the Griffins, a deal that was recently converted to a full-season agreement. But when Husso and Lyon both went down, Detroit upgraded it to an NHL deal, allowing him to serve as Reimer’s backup while making one start. He cleared waivers earlier today, paving the way for him to go back to Grand Rapids.

Tyson Jost, Michael Hutchinson Clear Waivers

December 29, 2023 at 1:03 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 5 Comments

Dec. 29: Jost and Hutchinson both passed through waivers unclaimed, per Friedman.

Dec. 28: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, forward Tyson Jost and goaltender Michael Hutchinson have been placed on waivers by the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings, respectively.

Jost, 25, arrives on waivers in the midst of a difficult contract season in Buffalo. The pending unrestricted free agent is making $2MM against the cap but has not provided much return on investment for the Sabres. He’s scored just four points in 29 games this season and has seen his role on the team erode compared to last year.

Last season, Jost averaged 13:20 time-on-ice per game and saw over a minute of penalty-killing time per game as well.

So far this season, Jost has dropped under a minute short-handed and has seen his overall ice time drop dangerously close to the 10 minute plateau.

That decline in role has come alongside his significantly reduced production, and now he’ll be made available to all 31 other teams.

It’s a relatively quick turnaround for Jost, a player who just last night skated as the Sabres’ number-one center in the absence of Tage Thompson. But in a different sense, Jost’s return to the AHL (which seems likely as his $2MM cap hit makes claiming him a difficult prospect for most teams across the league) has been a long time coming. The former top prospect played well at the BCHL and NCAA levels but has struggled to make his mark on the NHL.

Jost’s ability to play a two-way game meant that earlier in his career, Jost could be trusted to play in a bottom-six role at the NHL level. As a result, he never got to play in the AHL on any sort of extended basis. That meant that he never got the chance to learn how to score on a consistent basis as a professional, and his offensive game never quite took off.

Now he’ll likely land with the Sabres’ AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, and get the chance to potentially play in a starring offensive role that he never received in the NHL. For the Sabres, sending him to the AHL would save the team some cap space and would also clear a roster spot to be used on a different player.

As for Hutchinson, he’s already cleared waivers this season (for his original assignment to the AHL) and has been through the process numerous times before in his career as a third goalie.

As an established veteran netminder in a league perpetually in need of quality goaltending, there is a chance Hutchinson gets claimed. His league-minimum cap hit is easy for most teams to fit into their financial picture, although his AHL performance (5-7-1 .895 save percentage) is not hugely encouraging.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Atlantic Notes: Nylander, Hutchinson, Miller

December 25, 2023 at 7:04 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

While the Maple Leafs locked up a key pending UFA back in August when they inked Auston Matthews to a four-year extension, they still have another member of their ‘core four’ to sign, winger William Nylander. In a recent TSN Insider Trading segment, Chris Johnston of The Athletic reported that the two sides seem to be on the same page on a number of fronts while Nylander has affirmed his desire to stay with Toronto long-term. Currently carrying a cap hit of just over $6.96MM, the 27-year-old has a chance to push past the $10MM mark on his next agreement. He had a career-high 87 points last season and is on pace for 119 as things currently stand this year.

Detroit Red Wings Sign Michael Hutchinson

December 19, 2023 at 12:19 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 2 Comments

Already playing in the organization on an AHL contract for the 2023-24 season, the Detroit Red Wings announced the signing of goaltender Michael Hutchinson to a one-year, two-way contract for the rest of the season. In 13 games played for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, Hutchinson holds a 5-7-1 record, coupled with a .895 SV% and a 2.98 GAA.

The news comes after a tough couple of days for Detroit goaltending, as Alex Lyon left the team’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers after falling to the ice awkwardly following a save, and Ville Husso would leave the team’s game last night against the Anaheim Ducks with an apparent knee injury.

With head coach Derek Lalonde indicating that Husso would be out week-to-week, and Lyon expected to be out until after the Christmas holiday, James Reimer is seemingly the only healthy option left available to Detroit, meaning Hutchinson could see a call-up to the NHL organization shortly. In what has become a bit of a talking point surrounding the Red Wings season up to this point, the regular goaltending trio holds a 15-12-4 record in 31 games, only sporting a combined save percentage of 90.4% and a GAA of 3.01.

However, even with a fresh face between the pipes for a short while, there shouldn’t be any expectation that Hutchinson will provide any sort of improvement to Detroit’s goaltending issues. Having only played in 54 games since the beginning of the 2017-18 NHL season, Hutchinson holds a 16-23-7 record in those six years, while maintaining a .889 SV% and a 3.52 GAA.

If Hutchinson fails to deliver on whatever expectations the Red Wings may have for him, they do have one final option in the crease they could use, but are seemingly hesitant to do so. After a difficult transition to professional hockey last season, Sebastian Cossa, the 15th overall selection of the 2021 NHL Draft, sports a 4-5-2 record for the Griffins this season, with a much improved .904 SV% and 2.93 GAA.

Minor Transactions: 12/16/2023

December 16, 2023 at 4:35 pm CDT | by Gabriel Foley Leave a Comment

It’s ramp-up time for international hockey across the world. The 2023 World Junior A Challenge will play its medal games on Sunday, the Spengler Cup is 10 days away from its kickoff, matched by the kickoff of the 2024 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships kicking off on the same day. Teams are finalizing their lineups and beginning travel for the latter two tournaments and with an uptick in games has come an uptick in player movement. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player transactions here:

153-game veteran of the NHL Michael Hutchinson has signed a one-year contract with the AHL’s Grand Rapid Griffins that will carry the goalie through the remainder of the 2023-24 season. Hutchinson has appeared in 13 games for Grand Rapids this season under a professional try-out contract. He gets promoted to a full contract after setting a 5-7-1 record and .895 save percentage with the Griffins. Hutchinson has spent the last five seasons bouncing between the NHL and AHL, failing to record more than 30 games in any league since the 2015-16 season. The now 33-year-old goaltender has played all across North America, playing for five different NHL clubs and seven different AHL clubs since becoming a pro in 2010-11. Hutchinson was drafted by the Boston Bruins – a club he never played an NHL game for – in the third round of the 2008 NHL Draft.
Belarusian National Team player Shane Prince has signed a new, one-year contract with Spartak Moscow of the KHL. This deal will carry him through the rest of the 2023-24 season. Prince has become a prominent member of Russia’s top league since moving to the country for the 2018-19 season. He’s since totaled 167 points in 256 games in the KHL, intermixed with 19 appearances and 12 points in the National League, Switzerland’s top league. Prince also began playing with Belarus’ national team at the 2021 World Cup, and other international matchups that year, and most recently joined the team in their win of the Channel One Cup. Prince was once a highly-regarded NHL draft prospect, hearing his name called by the Ottawa Senators in the second round of the 2011 NHL Draft. But despite a strong OHL career, Prince was never able to get it going in the NHL or AHL. He totaled 38 points in 128 NHL games, and 150 points in 210 AHL games, before his move to Russia.

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Detroit Red Wings Sign Artem Anisimov, Michael Hutchinson To PTOs

September 19, 2023 at 5:29 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

The Detroit Red Wings have signed veteran center Artem Anisimov and netminder Michael Hutchinson to PTOs, according to CapFriendly. The two former full-time NHLers will now look to earn prospective two-way deals in Hockeytown.

Anisimov, 35, hasn’t suited up in an NHL game since 2020-21 as a member of the Ottawa Senators. The Russian forward departed for the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl on a one-year deal in 2021-22 before attempting an NHL comeback by signing a PTO with the Philadelphia Flyers last September. While he looked to be on his way to earning a contract, an injury during preseason sidelined him and kept him from earning a deal. Once healthy in November, he signed an AHL tryout with the team’s affiliate in Lehigh Valley before earning a full-fledged deal for the rest of the season. He finished the campaign with 19 goals, 17 assists and 36 points in 55 games.

He could look to earn a similar top-six role for Detroit’s minor-league club in Grand Rapids, replacing the void left by free-agent center Danny O’Regan. The path to an NHL roster spot for Anisimov is slim after two years away from the game’s top level, plus a roster crunch of younger Red Wings forwards that includes Jonatan Berggren, Marco Kasper, Elmer Soderblom, and Joe Veleno, among others.

Hutchinson, 33, played 16 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets last season, his most in a single NHL season since splitting 2019-20 with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche. His days as a full-time tandem netminder with the Winnipeg Jets in the mid-2010s are long gone. He’s posted a save percentage below .900 in back-to-back AHL seasons and put up a far below-average .877 save percentage and 4.29 goals-against average with Columbus, although a good portion of that could be attributed to the team’s patchwork defense.

Nonetheless, it’s debatable whether or not Hutchinson is even an AHL starter at this stage in his career, although that’s not a role he’d be expected to fill anyway after Detroit signed Alex Lyon to fill that role in Grand Rapids earlier this summer. He’s likely an insurance option to become Grand Rapids’ backup if 2021 first-round pick Sebastian Cossa, who had a tough showing in Detroit’s rookie tournament games last week, needs another season in the ECHL with Toledo.

Free Agent Focus: Columbus Blue Jackets

May 29, 2023 at 8:57 pm CDT | by Josh Cybulski 6 Comments

Free agency is now a little more than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Key Restricted Free Agents

D Marcus Björk – Björk had a nice, albeit abbreviated rookie season for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The 25-year-old Swede split the year between Columbus and the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. In 33 NHL games Björk tallied three goals and eight assists, while in the AHL he put up seven goals and eight assists in 44 games. Björk earned a lot of praise from the Columbus coaching staff and at one point was being dubbed a player who could have a long NHL career, this was before his game fell off during the middle of the season. He was demoted for a few months before being recalled towards the end of the year to re-join Columbus. While his play trailed off, one might wonder if it was tied to fatigue as Björk had never played more than 52 games in a season prior to this year. Columbus will likely lock up Björk for a season or two to take a long look at a player who could become a hidden gem for the Blue Jackets should he be able to build on his small success from this past year.

RW Mathieu Olivier – Olivier has never topped 19 points since turning pro back in 2018-2019. His career high came in the AHL when he put up 10 goals and nine assists in 58 games for the Milwaukee Admirals in the pandemic shortened 2019-2020 season. This past season the 26-year-old played a career high 66 NHL games for the Blue Jackets putting up 81 PIM, as well as five goals and 10 assists. Olivier offers sandpaper and is always willing to battle and stick up for his teammates, however he will never put up much in the way of offence. But given his status as one of Columbus’ most pressing RFA cases, it is a real indication of the lack of NHL talent that the Blue Jackets have on their NHL roster at this time. Olivier will likely be re-signed to a one year/two-way contract for around the league minimum.

Other RFAs: Tim Berni, Joshua Dunne, Carson Meyer, Trey Fix-Wolansky, Jacob Christiansen

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Gavin Bayreuther – Bayreuther is the Blue Jackets top unrestricted free agent heading into this offseason and was famously taken by the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft two years ago only to be left unsigned. Bayreuther then became a free agent and quickly signed back with the Blue Jackets where he has played the past few seasons. The New Hampshire native toiled in the AHL with the Texas Stars for four seasons before finally getting a chance in the NHL with the Blue Jackets in the 2021-22 season. The 29-year-old spent most of this past season with Columbus where he put up two goals and 12 assists in 51 games.

Bayreuther has never put up much in the way of offense in his career as he has just 28 career points in 122 career games, he is the epitome of a tweener. He is too good for the AHL however he is likely not a strong enough player to sustain success in the NHL. He will likely be given the opportunity to sign a two-way contract this summer with a decent downside guarantee at the AHL level and the chance to split time between the AHL and the NHL.

F Lane Pederson – The Blue Jackets claimed Pederson off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks this past January. The Saskatoon native spent 27 games in the NHL this season split between to the two clubs and put up three goals and three assists. Much like Bayreuther, Pederson is also a tweener. He’s been a very good offensive player in the AHL the past few seasons as he has put up nearly a point a game since 2018-19. But this offensive success just simply hasn’t carried over the NHL as Pederson has just four goals and seven assists in 71 NHL games.

Pederson will get a two-way contract with a good AHL salary and will likely make for a good 13th or 14th forward next season.

G Michael Hutchinson – Hutchinson is the definition of a journeyman. He has played 153 NHL games spread over ten seasons posting a .902 career save percentage. Early in his career the 33-year-old looked as though he would be a solid NHL backup as posted a .914 save percentage in 38 games going 21-10-5 for the Winnipeg Jets in 2014-15. However, by 2017 Hutchinson found himself back in the AHL and struggled to find consistent NHL work, dressing in just 54 NHL games over the past six seasons. Given his age and recent track record it is realistic to guess that Hutchinson will find work as a teams third string goaltender that can take the bulk of the AHL starts and fill in at the NHL level should an injury occur.

Other UFAs: Joona Luoto, Justin Richards, Jon Gillies

Projected Cap Space

Columbus has ample cap room to fill out their roster as they currently have just under $17MM in space and 21 players signed for next season. However, filling out their roster simply won’t be good enough given how thin the team is on NHL talent. The club has committed big money to Patrik Laine, Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski but haven’t been able to insulate them with much in the way of offensive talent. They have some terrific young players and will need to be careful to leave room for their future contracts, however the Blue Jackets need to do a better job of providing depth scoring so they don’t rely so heavily on their top line scorers. Columbus has been largely unsuccessful in unrestricted free agency making it interesting to see how they will play the market when it opens in July.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Columbus Blue Jackets Issue Injury Updates

March 27, 2023 at 10:47 am CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

In what’s becoming a tired refrain, the Columbus Blue Jackets have issued multiple injury updates after a blowout loss over the weekend. Defenseman Erik Gudbranson’s season is over with a separated shoulder, while defenseman Nick Blankenburg is week-to-week with an ankle injury and could also be done for the year. Winger Mathieu Olivier may have also played his last game this season, as he’s out two to four weeks with a lower leg bone bruise. Goalie Elvis Merzlikins is also day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

For Gudbranson, the injury ends a rocky first campaign in Columbus after signing a four-year, $4MM average annual value contract in the offseason. The 31-year-old had 13 points in 70 games, seeing his defensive play regress back to some of the worst metrics in the league after a brief spike last season with the Calgary Flames.

Blankenburg has also struggled with injuries most of the year, but the 24-year-old rookie has played well. Some doubted Blankenburg’s NHL viability after signing with Columbus as a free agent out of college to end last season. Still, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound defender finished the year with 14 points in 36 games without being a complete defensive liability on a struggling team.

In his first season in Columbus, Olivier has set career highs in every offensive category, playing in 66 games and registering five goals and 15 points. The 26-year-old hard-nosed winger had found a consistent home on the team’s fourth line.

Without Merzlikins in the fold for the next few games, Columbus is down to minor-league veterans Michael Hutchinson and Jon Gillies as their netminders for the next few games.

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