Ben Hutton supplants Scott Mayfield in Islanders’ lineup

Fuente: New York Post

The surprise Saturday morning wasn’t so much that Ben Hutton was making his Islanders debut, with the defenseman’s inclusion in the lineup having been telegraphed since he was signed off his PTO on Thursday. Rather, it was that Hutton was skating on the left side of Matt Kessel against the Devils and not Scott Mayfield, who was a healthy scratch. While Mayfield has been fighting what looks more and more like an uphill battle for his spot on the depth chart since training camp, it would be hard to argue he hasn’t outplayed Kessel lately and harder still to argue that his importance to the penalty kill doesn’t justify keeping him in the lineup until Ryan Pulock returns from an upper-body injury.