Yesterday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs made it four healthy scratches in seven games for Canucks defenceman Ben Hutton. Coming into this season, Hutton had never sat out an NHL game for which he was available.

That underscores what a tumultuous season Hutton is having in Travis Green’s first year as the Canucks head coach. It’s clear Hutton’s fallen out of favour with the new regime, and fast. If not for Chris Tanev’s injury, tonight would be healthy scratch number five for Hutton.

Part of that is logistics. The Canucks are widely-expected to move pending unrestricted free agent defenceman Erik Gudbranson at the trade deadline, and sitting him at this stage would submarine his value which we already have to imagine is significantly lower than what the Canucks surrendered to acquire him.

But what if the Canucks were to move Hutton, too? It’s starting to seem less outlandish by the day.

Based on a report by The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, who’s fairly well connected with credible NHL sources, the Canucks are listening to offers for Hutton.

Garrioch also added in his report that Gudbranson “will attract a lot of attention” on the trade market, but that’s hardly news.

If Hutton is available, it’s worth noting that this wouldn’t be the first time his name has come up as a possible trade chip in Vancouver. Hutton’s name came up frequently in rumours involving the Canucks interest in Evander Kane.

While I see Hutton as value-added to the Canucks lineup (an increasingly unpopular opinion), I can still see the case for moving him at this year’s deadline. At some point, the Canucks are going to have to create room on their left side for Olli Juolevi to make the jump, which isn’t that far off based on how well he’s played this season.

Moving Alexander Edler is a non-starter (no-trade clause), and Michael Del Zotto seems to have earned the trust of Green, so he seems unlikely to be on his way out this season, too.

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This draft is going to be rich in defensive talent, so if there was ever a time to pick up extra picks to try and re-stock an otherwise bare shelf of defensive prospects, the time is now.

In a perfect world, Hutton returns to the lineup tonight, makes a good impression, and the case is obvious for what he brings to the Canucks blue line and they re-think whether he should be traded or not. Or perhaps there’s a deal out there that makes so much sense for them that they have to move Hutton.

Right now, it’s trending more towards the latter of those options. Certainly, if you believe Garrioch’s report.





