The Ottawa Senators have turned to a familiar kind of camp insurance, bringing in veteran defenceman Ben Hutton on a professional tryout while Artem Zub remains out with an injury.
Hutton will be added to Ottawa’s training camp roster as the club waits for Zub to recover from the injury he suffered during the Senators’ playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes. With Zub unavailable for now, Ottawa needed another blue-line option to fill out camp.
For the Senators, Hutton offers something straightforward: experience. The 32-year-old has logged 444 NHL games and has been in the league since debuting with the Vancouver Canucks in 2015. He spent his first four seasons in Vancouver before moving on to the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks and Vegas Golden Knights.
His production has been modest, with 20 goals and 82 assists for 102 points, but Ottawa isn’t bringing him in to be a direct stand-in for Zub. The value here is in the minutes, the reps and the stability. Hutton has spent years in the NHL in a variety of roles, and that gives the Senators another trusted body to lean on while they sort through camp.
That matters even more with younger defencemen still battling for roster spots. Hutton gives Ottawa another veteran to compete against, and the team can evaluate him during camp before deciding whether he’s done enough to earn a contract.
Bruce Garrioch had already pointed to this possibility on Wednesday, saying the Senators were looking at both Hutton and Logan Stanley. Ottawa has now settled on Hutton, adding an experienced depth piece at a time when it needs help on defence and can’t count on Zub being available.
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Some of the early groupings hint at the sort of top-end talent Ottawa wants to lean on, with Tim Stutzle alongside Andre Burakovsky and Drake Batherson as one of the more intriguing looks. Greens approach suggests he is trying to identify which alignments can drive play rather than simply fill out a lineup card, and that matters for a team that no longer wants to be judged by just getting in the door. The next step is figuring out whether these looks can translate from camp drills into the kind of balance and depth contending teams usually need. [Read more 🡒]
Artem Zubs Camp Setback Creates An Early Senators Concern
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There is at least one piece of reassurance for Ottawa in that Zub avoided surgery, which keeps the situation from sounding worse than it is at this stage. Still, the setback pushes back the start of his camp work and leaves the Senators waiting a little longer to see how quickly he can ramp back up once he is cleared to return. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Quietly Made A Goalie Change Ottawa Fans Should Notice
The Maple Leafs have quietly adjusted to one of the NHLs lesser-known new requirements, and it is the kind of wrinkle Ottawa fans should at least keep an eye on when Toronto comes to town. Brendan Bonello, a 27-year-old from Mississauga with junior and minor pro experience, is now part of the Leafs game-night setup as the designated emergency backup goalie, giving Toronto its own built-in insurance policy under the leagues expanded coverage.
It is a notable shift from the old arrangement, when teams leaned on a local emergency goalie supplied by the home team if disaster struck in net. Now every club has to bring its own EBUG on the road, which means the Leafs are no longer depending on the arena down the street to solve a crisis. For Ottawa, it is another small but meaningful change in the rhythm of a Sens-Leafs matchup, especially in a season when every detail around the rivalry tends to get noticed. [Read more 🡒]