THUNDER BAY – Carter Hutton has mixed reactions about his play following his first season as the No. 1 goaltender with the Buffalo Sabres.
Eagerly signed by the National Hockey League club on Day 1 of free agency last summer, the now 33-year-old Hutton had high expectations for both himself and the team.
For a while, in the early stages of the campaign, it looked like team management had found the recipe for success, a chance to put an end to a seven-year playoff drought.
Between Nov. 8 and Nov. 27 the Sabres strung together 10 straight triumphs and were ranked the league’s No. 1 team by several high-profile news outlets.
However, the five straight losses that followed were the beginning of the end for the team, who turned a 17-6-2 into a 33-39-10 finish.
Hutton, who was coming off the best season of his career in St. Louis, having led the NHL in both goals against average, struggled a bit down the stretch with his new club, never able to find the consistency he’d found with St. Louis.
He finished with a 3.00 goals against average, 41st among goaltenders appearing in 25 or more contests, his .908 save percentage 34th best.
“I think a little early on we were playing with fire a little bit with the way we were playing,” Hutton said of the Sabres early success. “We were winning a lot of tight games. I think seven of the 10 we won in overtime or a shootout. Then I think later on the season kind of tightened up around the NHL. The second half was a lot harder to score and a lot harder to produce.
“I think we just didn’t rely on our structure enough. For us it cost us. We’re a younger team. We didn’t really have a ton of veteran guys up front – but a lot of young talent and I think moving forward we’re going to learn from it.”
Brought in to be a veteran presence, Hutton said his goal before the season began was to play 50 games, the number he finished at.
“That’s something I’m proud of for sure,” said Hutton, a seven-year veteran whose previous high was 40 in his rookie season in Nashville.
“I’ve grinded a long way to kind of come to this point. I thought at points I carried our team and I thought at points I could have been better. I think mid-season I didn’t play as well as I would have liked to. But then I thought later in the year I wasn’t necessarily getting results, but I was keeping us in a lot of games. We were giving up a lot of chances and I think from that standpoint I got to the point where I felt I just needed to control what I could.”
With 22-year-old centre Jack Eichel and rookie defenceman Rasmus Dahlin leading the way into the future, Hutton, who has two years remaining on his three-year, $5.25-million deal, said he’s not taking anything for granted, knowing he’ll be challenged for the No. 1 job by fourth-year veteran Linus Ullmark, who appeared in 37 games for Buffalo in 2018-19.
“He’s the young guy. They’re trying to get him going and they want him to be the future. At 33, I’m definitely on the back nine in the hockey world in that sense. But for me personally, I don’t feel that way. I feel as healthy as can be and I’m going to put a lot of time in and I’m going to make sure no one hands him the job,” Hutton said.
“If he takes it, he’s going to have to take it from me.”
