Vancouver Canucks forward Daniel Sedin shares a smile with defenceman Ben Hutton during practice at UBC in Vancouver. When Hutton got his teeth knocked out in junior, his teammates called him Smiley. Photograph by: Arlen Redekop , PNG

This story should probably begin with one of those happy face emoticons.

After all, it’s about Ben Hutton, the Vancouver Canucks’ rookie defenceman who always seems to be smiling.

And why shouldn’t he? All the 22-year-old Hutton has done is defy the odds by coming straight out of college — save four games with the Utica Comets of the AHL late last season — to earn a National Hockey League roster spot.

“I have always been a happy guy,” Hutton says with, yes, a big smile. “I get that a lot from people, that I’m always smiling. I tend to smile a lot, apparently. Actually, when I got my teeth knocked out in junior, they started calling me Smiley. I have had that nickname a few times. You can definitely tell when I am happy.”

Which seems to be just about all the time. His mom and dad, Janet and Jim, say their son has always been a people person who loves life.

“Really with Ben, what you see is what you get,” Janet Hutton says over the phone from the family’s home in Prescott, Ont. “There’s no pretence there. If you see him smile, it’s because he is happy. That is who he is.”

Hutton was the surprise of training camp for the Canucks. Defencemen, even the best ones, normally take some time to develop.

Mattias Ohlund, for example, spent three seasons in the Swedish Elite League before joining the Canucks. Fellow Swede Alex Edler spent a season in Kelowna in major junior and the better part of a year in the minors before earning a roster spot in Vancouver. More recently, Chris Tanev played parts of three seasons in the AHL before he found a full-time spot on the Vancouver blue-line.

Hutton is just seven games into his NHL career and realizes that anything can happen, but he has shown no signs that he does not belong.

The past few weeks, beginning with last month’s Young Stars tourney in Penticton, are something of a blur for Hutton. He has found it difficult to process all that has happened so quickly.

“It has been a whirlwind,” he says. “Coming into camp I just wanted to play my game, obviously I wanted to make the team, but I just wanted to play my game and show them that I could play. At the start I was a little bit like, holy cow, look at this, this is Daniel Sedin, or is it Henrik, you know what I mean? I was star-struck.

“Then I started practising with them and playing a few games with them and it was like, wow, I can skate with these guys, I feel pretty good. I got more and more confident and when it came down to the end I was like I really want to make this team. I was very happy when they told me I was staying. That was probably the biggest my smile has ever been.”

Everyone, including his teammates, has been talking about his poise. One of Hutton’s strengths has been how composed he remains under pressure. He’s been adept at handling the opposition’s forecheck and moving the puck out of his own end.

“You watch him with the puck and he is so calm under pressure,” says Tanev, who possesses that quality himself. “He finds outs in our end all the time and he is not just shooting it up the glass or rimming it around the boards. A lot of young guys sort of panic when they get in those situations, but he’ll find the centreman or make a move and skate the puck out of the zone. He is very composed and he is always calm. He’s very impressive.”