The Boston Bruins still need help on the left side of their blue line, and free agency is one place where general manager Don Sweeney can look for upgrades before the team's first game of the 2020-21 NHL season on Jan. 14.
One potential target for the Bruins is defenseman Ben Hutton. The B's reportedly are "among the teams with interest" in the 27-year-old veteran, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
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SIGN UP HERE Hutton tallied 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 65 games for the Los Angeles Kings last season. He spent the first four years of his career with the Vancouver Canucks after they selected him in the fifth round of the 2012 NHL Draft.
The Bruins are pretty set on the right side of the blue line, where standouts Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo have established themselves as consistently reliable defensemen. Other right-sided d-men on Boston's roster include Connor Clifton and Kevan Miller. The left side has less experience and talent. The group includes Grzelcyk, John Moore, Jeremy Lauzon, Jakub Zboril and Urho Vaakanainen. Zboril and Vaakanaien have just nine games of NHL experience combined.
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Hutton is not going to be an offensive dynamo or fill a shutdown role, but he would provide experience and some size (6-foot-2 and 206 pounds) on the blue line. The Kings had a plus-241 edge in shot attempts and a plus-122 advantage in shots on net when Hutton was on the ice during 5-on-5 play last season, which is impressive when you remember that L.A. was one of the worst teams in the league.
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The Bruins could bring back longtime captain Zdeno Chara instead of signing Hutton. The veteran defenseman has played the last 14 seasons in Boston and is still an unrestricted free agent. If Chara does not return, a cheap one-year deal with Hutton is among the better alternatives for the B's at this late stage in the offseason.
