Calgary Flames: Ten free agents they should target at Free Agency

5 – Carter Hutton

First, let me just say that I don’t believe that the Calgary Flames are looking to add a goaltender, but I still wanted to include one. It seems like the Flames will be sticking to Mike Smith, and while I wouldn’t mind David Rittich as a backup, we’ve seen him crumble under the pressure when he needed to take the reigns when Smith got injured.

Secondly, I originally had something written for Philipp Grubauer. But again, teams like to make me suffer and he was traded and got a deal. The next best option would definitely be Carter Hutton.

Calgary Flames

Last season with the St. Louis Blues, Hutton had the best season of his career. He went 17-7-3, had an sv% of 0.931, EV sv% of 0.932, PK sv% of 0.912 (second best in the league min. 100 TOI), and had a QS% of 0.731. The one concerning aspect of Hutton is his HDSV%. He had well above average LDSV% (was at 100%!) and MDSV%, but his HDSV% was at a mere 0.825. However, as a backup goalie, that number was one of the best.

He’s also played more than 30 games the last two seasons and is experienced with that, unlike David Rittich, who we saw somewhat crumble under the pressure when Mike Smith got hurt and he was forced to take the reigns. Don’t get me wrong, Rittich was an incredible backup goaltender, and for a few months, was one of the best backup goalies. But he couldn’t hold his own when Smith got injured.

Even when Smith came back from injury, he wasn’t the same. A player like Hutton can help. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a more common theme of teams sort of having two ready goaltenders, rather than a primary and a backup. If Smith gets injured or starts lacking, Hutton would be a perfect fit for the Calgary Flames.