Buffalo Sabres: Carter Hutton is having a career resurgence

The Buffalo Sabres are having a lot of early success in the 2019-20 season. Goaltender Carter Hutton, a journeyman, has been a huge part of it.

A Stanley Cup Champion, courtesy of an asterisk, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Carter Hutton has been on an NHL roster every year since the 2013-14 season. With the Nashville Predators, Hutton spent three seasons as Pekka Rinne’s backup before finding his way to St. Louis. During his time with the St. Louis Blues, he found success splitting time with Jake Allen, but despite his quality record, he was viewed as nothing more than a solid backup goaltender.

When coming to Buffalo in 2018, Hutton was thrown into a starter’s role for the first time in his career, playing a career-high 50 games in the season. While he adjusted to his new but unfamiliar role, he struggled in the win column, only winning 18 of his 48 starts.

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This year Hutton has turned a new page. The Sabres have started the season on fire and Hutton is a big reason why they’ve started the young part of the season 5-0-1. He has won all of his four starts in the first two weeks of the campaign and has a save percentage of .931%, facing over 100 shots so far.

Hutton has looked much improved this season fundamentally. He’s looked sound in his goal crease and made the important saves when needed.

Hutton, who not long ago was spending his early career in what seemed like impossible situations, has found his fit, as the young Sabres have exceeded early season expectations and have taken the NHL by surprise. He has become an early candidate for the NHL’s breakout, hot goaltender like Hutton’s predecessor, Robin Lehner, last season.

For a team that has gone through a large cycle of struggling netminders since the departure of franchise icon Ryan Miller, Carter Hutton is hoping to backstop the Sabres to their first playoff birth since 2011.

After years of getting quality high picks, including two 1st overalls in Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin, the Sabres are currently on top of the Atlantic Division after a strong start. This is something the Sabres fans haven’t seen since the days of Thomas Vanek‘s prime, and Carter Hutton’s strong performance is a big part of why we are seeing this.

The Sabres embark on a west coast road trip this weekend, facing some of the NHL’s bottom feeders that Carter Hutton is sure to have his work cut out for him. The Sabres goal scorers, like Jack Eichel and Victor Olofsson, have helped Hutton turn around his career fortunes.