Ducks Weekly: Ducks Sign Hutton To A PTO
By Michael Walters
This morning the Anaheim Ducks did a series of roster moves which included placing Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras on the roster. Anaheim also sent the following players down to the minors: Jack Kopacka, Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Antoine Morand, Jacob Perreault, and Brayden Tracey.
Additionally, the Ducks signed Ben Hutton to a PTO(professional tryout contract) this morning per Elliotte Friedman. This coming off Christian Djoos being claimed from waivers yesterday.
Anaheim had placed a total of nine players on waivers on January 8th. The other eight players included Andrew Agozzino, David Backes, Sam Carrick, Chase De Leo, Vinni Lettieri, Andrew Poturalski, Anthony Stolarz, and Andy Welinski. Everyone else cleared waivers.
Hutton has spent five years in the NHL. He played his first four years with Vancouver and then last season was with Los Angeles. He has played 341 total NHL games registering 86 points(15 goals + 71 assists). He has a career on-ice rating of -70.
He is a solid puck mover and can play 15-20 minutes on any given night. During his career, he averaged just under 20 minutes a game(19:56). In terms of puck possession, he had a Corsi-For percentage of 55.5% and a Fenwick-For percentage of 54.8% last season. Overall he has been 49.1% and 48.3% respectively for his career.
He has been solid on the penalty kill and could help the Ducks with the third defensive pairing if signed to a full-time contract. There is a crowded field for the Ducks bottom pairing, which could include Kodie Curran, Jacob Larsson, Jani Hakanpaa, Josh Mahura, and Andy Welinski.
One player that will not be part of the third defensive pairing for the beginning of the season is Brendan Guhle. Unfortunately, he sprained his MCL and is out for at least six weeks. The Ducks are definitely giving Hutton a look with Guhle out and Djoos being picked up by Detroit off waivers. Additionally, since Hutton played in LA last year, he might want to stay in Southern California instead of having to return to Vancouver or another team outside of California according to Richard Gonzalez.
Earlier this week the Ducks signed Anthony Stolarz to a two-year contract extension worth $1.9 million. He will be paid $950,000 for each of the next two seasons per Cap Friendly. He will likely spend a majority of the season in the minors since the Ducks brought back Ryan Miller for one more season.
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January 10th, 2021