Boston Bruins Castoff Michael Hutchinson Stealing Winnipeg Jets' No. 1 Job

Michael Hutchinson was so lightly regarded in the summer of 2013 that the Boston Bruins made the decision to let him walk as a restricted free agent. Today, less than two years later, Hutchinson is the NHL’s save percentage leader and appears poised to relegate Ondrej Pavelec to the No. 2 slot in the Winnipeg Jets’ goaltending rotation.

In one sense it’s surprising that a former ECHL’er who was available for the price of an NHL contract not all that long ago is playing so well. In another sense it isn’t because Hutchinson has performed well all down the line.

Originally a third-round pick of the Bruins in 2008, Hutchinson had caught the attention of scouts with a strong performance down the stretch in his draft year. Listed 18th among North American goalies in NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings, he jumped all the way to fifth in that agency’s final list. At the time Central Scouting’s Al Jensen described him as a “balanced goaltender” with a range of strengths:  

"

He is very quick; he challenges well and has a great glove. He is a very balanced goaltender and he’s quick to move and get set. I saw him play the first game of the playoffs and I couldn’t believe his confidence and how poised he was for it being his first game of the playoffs. He looked like a veteran goaltender in there, it showed too; he played big and his athleticism and quickness came into play. In my eyes, his stock has really risen over the course of the season.

"

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Boston agreed, drafting Hutchinson 77th overall. That may not seem significant, but at the time that third-round pick was the highest goalie selection the Bruins had made in more than half a decade.  

Hutchinson’s junior career was unexceptional; he had a bad playoff run in 2010 behind a very good London Knights team but earned an entry-level deal from the Bruins all the same.

He wasn’t very impressive as a first-year AHL’er, but as a sophomore he improved dramatically, posting a save percentage nearly 10 points better than that managed by Anton Khudobin, who even at the time was seen as ready for an NHL backup job. As 2011-12 came to an end, there was good reason for optimism.

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The Bruins evidently didn’t share that feeling. There were signs during the year, such as when Boston faced a goalie shortage and chose to sign a washed-up Marty Turco rather than recall its prospect. In May the club signed Niklas Svedberg; the undrafted goaltender had just led his team to a championship in Sweden’s top league. A month later the team spent its 24th overall pick on Malcolm Subban; with only one exception (future Odessa Jackalope Evgeni Ryabchikov) that was the highest pick Boston had spent on a goalie since it drafted Ken Dryden way back in 1964.

With Svedberg brought in to compete for a job in the present and Subban obviously the goalie of the future, Hutchinson had a very brief window to impress Boston. He was entering the last year of his contract; a poor performance would put him in a very bad position.

A poor performance is what happened. Hutchinson played on consecutive nights to kick off the Providence Bruins’ season and allowed six goals on 47 shots. The next weekend his coach went to Svedberg and never looked back.

From the start of December on Hutchinson posted a 0.924 save percentage, but Svedberg (a quality prospect in his own right) was just as good. With Svedberg supplanting Hutchinson and Subban on the way the Bruins had no use for their 2008 pick; they declined to give him a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Now it looks like a classic case of a team with too many good prospects losing a valuable one.

Hutchinson, in need of a job, accepted a one-year deal from Winnipeg. The Jets already had a full AHL depth chart, so the deal meant that Hutchinson would start the year in the ECHL. He blew the doors off at that level, winning 22 of 28 starts and being named that league’s Goalie of the Month in November.

In January an opportunity opened up in the AHL, and Hutchinson excelled there too; he posted a 0.923 save percentage for the St. John’s IceCaps and even got an NHL cameo late in the year. Returned to the minors for the playoffs, he was brilliant again, backstopping the IceCaps all the way to the league final.

Lance Thomson/Getty Images

Once again, there was reason for optimism. This time, Hutchinson’s team shared it. The Jets took a leap of faith and penciled their minor league star in as their NHL backup. It was a massive risk, as starter Ondrej Pavelec had been shaky and Winnipeg didn’t really have a Plan B if Hutchinson struggled. The team ended up trading for Peter Budaj in October just to make sure it had a third goaltender behind its iffy No. 1 and inexperienced No. 2.

The rest of the story is pretty well-known. Pavelec started strongly but stumbled, and Hutchinson stepped in. The two goalies alternated games for a time, but Hutchinson’s strong play has resulted in him starting three of the Jets’ last four games; all three were Winnipeg wins, while Pavelec allowed four goals on 23 shots to lose his lone start.

Hutchinson is expected to start on Monday night, which will mark his third consecutive game in the crease for Winnipeg:

It’s an interesting story to watch, and it is by no means over yet. Hutchinson is, after all, only 17 games into his NHL career.

What we can say for sure is that the Jets were wise to take a chance on a goalie the Bruins didn’t have room for. The question now is exactly how big the payoff on that decision is going to be.  

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and HockeyDB.com. 

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.