First of all, you should never be okay with a defenceman of value walking away for nothing. My guess is, the Vancouver Canucks, a team who have hardly any assets that they’d be willing to trade, would know that. So why is it that the team looks prepared to walk away from Ben Hutton you may ask?
Sportsnet’s Rick Dhaliwal and Elliotte Friedman both reported that the Canucks are not planning on qualifying Hutton’s contract today, making him an unrestricted free agent. The Canucks are not expected to offer him a contract when he becomes a UFA, unlike last year, when they avoided arbitration with defenceman Derrick Pouliot by not extending him a qualifying offer but signed him after he became a free agent.