Rumor: Oilers among teams with serious interest in Ben Hutton

[eviohh26]

Not a very good player. Don't do it

 

[Kipper933]

Ben Hutton will be playing top 4 minutes for the Oilers at some point in this season

He'd definitely be playing above William Lagesson.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

Now just imagine how Benning might have been able to leverage 24 million of dead/replacement cap to eat some bad contracts this year. Or acquire good players.

It is not out of the realm of possibility that along with Schmidt, Canucks could have acquired Hall and D. Toews while keeping Toffoli. And still eaten a bad one year contract for a kings ransom on top of it.

So you tell me, who's being uncharitable now?

Hughes was a good if obvious pick. Credit to Detroit as well for taking Zadina. I addressed the Schmidt acquisition - which I am happy with - but it's telling that Vegas only got a 3rd round pick. D are always in demand, 6 million d-men in an off season with extremely minimal available cap are not. There was very little interest in acquiring his cap hit for any sort of asset.

He made a lot of poor moves from 2014-2016, he's made a lot of great ones ever since.

Your wet dreams notwithstanding, you don't get to just add every good acquisition that any team this off season has made (Hall, Toews, etc) to the Canucks and hold your alternate reality against Benning. It's disingenuous.

Some of his deals were terrible at the time (Del Zotto, Gagner, giving Beagle 4 years, etc), while some seemed like decent bets that just didn't work out (Eriksson, Roussel, arguably Gudbranson) but they weren't good moves.

Subsequently, he has us set up with a young core of 5-6 players that are the envy of at least 25 other teams.

And saying Hughes was completely obvious is unfair too. He was the player that I was hoping for, but the rhetoric at the time was that he was lumped in with Bouchard, Dobson, and Boqvist. Further, your discrediting of Detroit for taking Zadina implies that you weren't following the draft. He was expected to go 3rd, nobody was giving them shit for that pick. Montreal for Kotkaniemi and Arizona for Hayton were godsends for us.

 

[FOurteenS inCisOr]

He made a lot of poor moves from 2014-2016, he's made a lot of great ones ever since.

Your wet dreams notwithstanding, you don't get to just add every good acquisition that any team this off season has made (Hall, Toews, etc) to the Canucks and hold your alternate reality against Benning. It's disingenuous.

Some of his deals were terrible at the time (Del Zotto, Gagner, giving Beagle 4 years, etc), while some seemed like decent bets that just didn't work out (Eriksson, Roussel, arguably Gudbranson) but they weren't good moves.

Subsequently, he has us set up with a young core of 5-6 players that are the envy of at least 25 other teams.

And saying Hughes was completely obvious is unfair too. He was the player that I was hoping for, but the rhetoric at the time was that he was lumped in with Bouchard, Dobson, and Boqvist. Further, your discrediting of Detroit for taking Zadina implies that you weren't following the draft. He was expected to go 3rd, nobody was giving them shit for that pick. Montreal for Kotkaniemi and Arizona for Hayton were godsends for us.

Eriksson, Gudbranson, and (to a lesser degree) Roussel ALWAYS looked like terrible deals, and many were calling them such at the time.

Not sure how you can claim they looked like “decent bets” when they were widely panned at the time they were made.

 

[jd22]

He made a lot of poor moves from 2014-2016, he's made a lot of great ones ever since.

Your wet dreams notwithstanding, you don't get to just add every good acquisition that any team this off season has made (Hall, Toews, etc) to the Canucks and hold your alternate reality against Benning. It's disingenuous.

Some of his deals were terrible at the time (Del Zotto, Gagner, giving Beagle 4 years, etc), while some seemed like decent bets that just didn't work out (Eriksson, Roussel, arguably Gudbranson) but they weren't good moves.

Subsequently, he has us set up with a young core of 5-6 players that are the envy of at least 25 other teams.

And saying Hughes was completely obvious is unfair too. He was the player that I was hoping for, but the rhetoric at the time was that he was lumped in with Bouchard, Dobson, and Boqvist. Further, you're* discrediting of Detroit for taking Zadina implies that you weren't following the draft. He was expected to go 3rd, nobody was giving them shit for that pick. Montreal for Kotkaniemi and Arizona for Hayton were godsends for us.

Fair enough about the draft, and I do remember Zadina being agreed upon in the 3rd OA neighbourhood. But if it wasn't detroit, it was Arizona and Montreal, then - not anything to do with Benning. I am glad Benning and co were astute enough to jump on him at 7.

As for the above: yes, obviously this is not NHL21. However, think of the amount of teams that are required to shed cap - and how many teams can take cap? Short answer: alot, and very few. That could have been leveraged into huge gains for the future and take the core from solid to excellent.

And while the forwards look nice, Hughes can't clone himself 5x. I would not say the D core itself is any sort of envy inducing - Hughes, yes.

This is straying a bit too far from the topic, even for me, but having a bit of depth rather than expecting Benn/Chatfield/Brisebois/Juolevi (BCBJ) to play a safe set of bottom six minutes (with the inevitable likelihood of an injury to one of Schmidt/Myers/Edler/Hughes at some point, ergo a bump to the top four) for BCBJ is not a recipe for success.

Ergo, having been able to keep a depth d-man or two a la Biega, Stecher, or Hutton would be a very valuable thing. Ergo cap space.

 

[elitepete]

What is the scouting report on him? He seems to put up decent numbers for the minutes that he gets.

Two way puck mover than is decent in both ends of the ice. A little inconsistent defensively, and gets beat wide a lot when defending the rush.

Overall, a good #5 d that I think can still become a #4.

 

[voxel]

He'd definitely be playing above William Lagesson.

When Bear and Jones got promoted.. Lagesson began to shine on the top-pair on the Condors. I think he's ready for bottom-pairing D minutes. I don't see where Hutton/Hamonic fit unless we think Larsson will get injured again and/or we need 8 D and/or Bear will holdout.

 

[Ctrain2k]

When Bear and Jones got promoted.. Lagesson began to shine on the top-pair on the Condors. I think he's ready for bottom-pairing D minutes. I don't see where Hutton/Hamonic fit unless we think Larsson will get injured again and/or we need 8 D and/or Bear will holdout.

I think it’s smart to overdo it on depth with covid.

 

[HaNotsri]

Serious interest but multiple teams in the mix. Are some teams prank calling him?