Besides figuring out that they had a great crop of young talent on the roster, and an exciting scoring sensation in Alex Hutchings, Barrie Colts coaches and management discovered through a sometimes trying regular season, and a resurgence in the playoffs, they also had a bona fide star between the pipes.

In looking forward to the future, all junior hockey teams know a championship contender is built from the crease out.

In trading their number-one netminder Andrew Perugini on Dec. 30, the Colts were not only confirming to their fans and the league that they were in a major rebuilding mode, but they were also pinning their future hopes squarely on the shoulders of the team’s new number-one goalie, Barrie native Michael Hutchinson.

In the regular season after the trade, the 18-year-old Hutchinson, who appeared only sparingly in 2006-2007 as Perugini’s understudy, showed flashes of brilliance, but also flashes of inconsistency, often allowing one key bad goal a game.

In 32 games, he went 12 and 15, with a 3.02 goals-against average and .912 save percentage.

Respectable enough numbers, but nothing that would indicate he was going to be the probable heir to the stellar Perugini.

But in the playoffs, Hutchinson was a revelation. After the first week of the playoffs against the Brampton Battalion, he was not only named the Ontario Hockey League’s player of the week, but was dubbed the best junior player in the nation that week as the CHL player of the week.

By the end of the two-round run for the Colts, Hutchinson was 4-4, with a 2.64 goals-against average, and a save percentage of .941.

He made highlight-reel saves that that had fans at the Barrie Molson Centre leaping to their feet, and had members of the Brampton Battalion and Belleville Bulls scratching their heads.

“Michael Hutchinson really emerged. He’s done so much for himself in the (upcoming NHL) draft, and he did so much more for the team, and looking forward, Michael is probably going to be here for two more years,” said Colts head coach Marty Williamson in a year-end interview with The Advance.

The greatest impact of Hutchinson’s ascent to the status as a credible, if not exceptional number-one OHL goalie is on his teammates, according to the coach.

“It’s the confidence that goaltending gives you. It allows you to do different things, where not every mistake you make is the back of your net. You can make the odd mistake, and we can sag our coverage a little bit and give up some shots, and Michael’s going to make those saves,” Williamson said.

“You know if you want to go more offensive and you want to leave him alone back there by himself, you know he’s going to come up for you the majority of times. He makes his saves.”

Williamson said at points during the season - especially after the Dec. 30 trade that saw the Colts deal Perugini and top scorer Vladimir Nikiforov to the Sarnia Sting (as well as a couple of draft picks) for Dalton Prout, rookie Colton Kennedy, overager Ryan Berard, 17-year-old netminder Peter Di Salvo and picks - rookies were forced into more significant on-ice roles, meaning there were greater opportunities for those kind of miscues.

“We say to those guys who are scared about making mistakes that when you’ve got a goaltender that has got a .920 save percentage, if you start doing the math, not every mistake is going in. It’s about the kind of mistakes you make and how you correct that mistake, and not making the second and third mistake,” Williamson said.

“And I just think Michael and Peter gave us that confidence, and moving forward, it just gives you the flexibility to do so many different things, to have the kind of goaltending that bails you out of penalties and all that kind of stuff.”

While Hutchinson was preventing goals, at the other end of the ice, Alex Hutchings led the Colts in scoring this season with 29 goals and 25 assists.

The year before, Hutchings scored just one regular-season goal.

“I think Hutch made a huge jump … and next year, we would want more progress. But last year, he made such a huge step. I think he would like to get into the 35 or 40 range. This year, he scored 29, almost 30, and 30 is a real benchmark in this league. I think it’s a tough number to get to,” he said.

Williamson also said a growing confidence and an ability to play in traffic were key factors in Hutchings’ rise to being a team offensive leader.

“That’s where Hutch has really emerged. He’s got that wrist shot, and he’s got that confidence in traffic just to hang in there,” said the coach.

As the Colts were the second-lowest-scoring team in the OHL last season, notching only 185 goals (the Sudbury Wolves were worst with 175 tallies), Hutchings will be expected to improve his goal total, as will the sophomore foursome of Mitch Lebar, Kyle Clifford, Colton Kennedy and Adam Payerl.

As well, Williamson notes, one glaring deficiency that will need to be improved is scoring from the blue line.

“We were one of the lowest scoring defences in the league, and our blue line just did not supply much punch at all. I think you’re going to see an emergence in that. I think Matt Stanisz and (Dalton) Prout both have some offence in them. And (Brian) Lashoff will continue to improve if he can get stronger and all that. For a guy who played on all our power plays and scored only five goals, we need better than that,” he said.

“So I think you will see that (improved offence) will be done by the whole team. I don’t think one individual is going to do it all … and the other slight problem that we had with our numbers being down is that (Daniel) Michalsky and (Cory) McGillis didn’t play full seasons for us. They were both short 20 to 25 games. So you start putting their numbers in and our overall numbers don’t look quite so bad. But we were one of the lower scoring teams, and it is something that we need to address in our game. The good side is that we played pretty solid defence.”

And he also commented that with the emergence of gritty players like Andrew Clouthier and George Lovatsis and Kyle Clifford, as well as the development of Stefan Della Rovere into a solid power forward, the Colts will not only be a solid team in goal, and a better team offensively, but they should also be a more difficult team to play against from a physical standpoint.

“I think that’s what you need to win hockey games, you need to have a variety of guys. Next year, I think we’re going to have a lot of weapons,” said Williamson.

-    Jim Barber is the Sports, Arts and Lifestyles editor for the Barrie Advance and the Sports editor of the Midland Mirror. Contact him at jbarber@simcoe.com.