With Artem Zub sidelined indefinitely, the club opted to give the Brockville native an opportunity.

Ben Hutton answered the call for help on Day 1 of Ottawa Senators training camp.

The Senators wasted no time bringing in some assistance for the blue line by signing the veteran defenceman to a professional tryout and he was on the ice on Thursday at the Bell Sensplex.

The Ottawa Citizen reported on Wednesday that the 33-year-old Hutton, who spent the past five seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights, was the frontrunner to be brought in on a PTO.

With Artem Zub sidelined indefinitely with what’s believed to be a knee injury he suffered in Game 1 of the club’s playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes this past spring, the Senators opted to give the Brockville native an opportunity.

Zub didn’t have surgery in the off-season, but his recovery from this injury is taking longer than anybody expected. The hope is he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 3, but there are no guarantees.

Hutton, who suited up for 55 games with the Knights last season, has a history with Ottawa coach Travis Green and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner during their two seasons with the Vancouver Canucks.

“It was a good skate,” Hutton said with a smile. “I actually had Greener in Vancouver, so I knew some of the drills and there was a nice bag skate at the end. I remember how that feels. It was a fun one.”

A fifth-round pick of the Canucks in 2012, Hutton has played 575 games in his National Hockey League career. He has skated with Vancouver, the Los Angeles Kings, the Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Vegas during his career.

Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, had been talking to Hutton’s camp for a while, but wasn’t sure if there would be an opportunity.

Hutton wouldn’t have been brought to camp if he didn’t have a realistic chance to earn a contract. The Senators need depth on the back end, and NHL experience is always important.

The wait to get an invite to an NHL camp was difficult for Hutton. He knew he wasn’t the kind of player that would get a deal the minute that free agency opened, but he didn’t have to expect to wait until the night before camp opened to get an invite either.

“It’s stressful,” he said. “You want to get something done right away when free agency opens up. You try to wait for the right opportunity, but I’m here now and I’m definitely going to make the most of it.

“I thought something was going to come before this, so that was stressful, but that’s the nature of the beast. It’s part of the game. Unfortunately, I was at the wrong end of it this summer, but we’re here to prove some people wrong.”

He only suited up for seven games in the playoffs when the Knights went to the Stanley Cup final last spring against the Hurricanes and that likely hurt his stature on the free-agent market.

Hutton finished with six goals and 15 points in 55 games with the Knights. He skated with Nikolas Matinpalo on Thursday.

“I just want to showcase myself and show the Senators that I deserve a spot,” Hutton said. “I thought I had a good year last year. I scored some goals and put up some points. We were a good team in Vegas, but I had limited minutes.”

But Hutton, who grew up in Prescott, makes his home in Westboro in the off-season and skated with several Senators during the summer skates held at the Bell Sensplex.

He played with Michael Amadio in Vegas and skated with veteran winger Claude Giroux in the summer. Hutton, who played junior with the CCHL’s Kemptville 73s before spending four seasons at the University of Maine, made a lot of trips down the highway to watch the Senators play.

“I had him as a very young player, kind of just breaking into the league and he’s had a good career,” Green said. “He’s matured. You can tell that just talking to him that he’s matured in his game. He’s won, and anytime you have success, you learn a lot.”

The injury to Zub may have opened a spot that people didn’t know existed when camp started. The popular choice would be to give that spot to Carter Yakemchuk, the club’s top selection in the 2025 NHL draft, but you don’t want to hand young players anything.

Having Hutton present will make Yakemchuk earn a position if he wants to be here on Opening Night. Hutton might have been one of the happiest players on the ice on Thursday.

If he doesn’t get a job here, maybe another NHL team sees him or the club signs him to a contract that keeps him only a phone call away in Belleville.

“It was fun,” Hutton said. “As much as I’m just trying to get to the guys, I was also trying to pick guys up because you could see them dragging their feet in the bag skate. It was good.”