Stu Cowan: Lane Hutson shows why Canadiens have high hopes for him (2024)

Lane Hutson looked like a kid who had borrowed his father’s much-too-large Canadiens sweater when he met the media after being selected in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft at the Bell Centre.

Hutson was ranked 25th among North American skaters heading into the draft by NHL Central Scouting and was listed at 5-foot-9 and 148 pounds at the time. The Canadiens selected Juraj Slafkovsky — who was listed at 6-foot-4 and 218 pounds — with the No. 1 overall pick that day, which made Hutson look even smaller.

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But the Canadiens saw much more than Hutson’s size under that large sweater.

“This kid has a big brain,” Nick Bobrov, the Canadiens’ co-director of amateur scouting, said after drafting Hutson, who had 6-26-32 totals in 27 USHL games the previous season with the U.S. National Development Team. “His hockey sense is very interesting. He has a chip on his shoulder that is very real. The size does not deter him, and when you need him I think you get a sense and a flavour for what’s inside.

“What he does on the ice, oftentimes it’s highlight reels, it’s power play, it’s thinking, finding seams, finding plays, lanes,” Bobrov added. “So you have to go after these types of defencemen, because they’re hard to find. We have big hopes for him.”

Hutson made his NHL debut in the Canadiens’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Red Wings Monday night in Detroit and showed exactly why Bobrov and the Canadiens have high hopes for the offensive-minded defenceman who posted 15-34-49 totals in 38 games this season as a sophom*ore at Boston University.

It took only 4:25 into his first NHL game for Hutson — now listed at 5-foot-10 and 162 pounds — to register his first point, picking up an assist on a goal by Brendan Gallagher. Hutson showed off his quick feet, soft hands and vision as he took a cross-ice pass from defence partner David Savard inside the offensive zone before skating along the blue line, then making a slight hesitation move before driving toward the net and firing a shot on net, with Gallagher then banging in the rebound.

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Nobody on the ice was more excited than the veteran Gallagher, who pointed at Hutson and then told him to lead the line of Canadiens skaters going to the bench instead of him to high-five their teammates.

Head coach Martin St. Louis decided to pair Hutson with Savard — just like he did with Kaiden Guhle as a rookie last season — and wasn’t afraid to use him. Hutson finished the game with 21:54 of ice time and he was almost the hero in overtime.

In the final minute of OT, Hutson took a pass from Nick Suzuki along the boards in the offensive zone and drove down deep before cutting to the middle and getting a real good shot on Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon, who made the save with 34 seconds left on the clock.

“I was fresh … I hopped on the ice and I saw an opening,” Hutson told reporters in Detroit after the game. “I wish it would have went in. That would have been pretty cool. But unfortunately it didn’t.”

As often happens in OT, a good scoring chance at one end results in another scoring chance going the other way with two players caught deep in the offensive zone. The Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond took off the other way on a two-on-one with Canadiens forward Josh Anderson trying to play defence. Hutson showed off his speed as he tried to race back and catch Raymond, but couldn’t get there in time as Raymond scored the winning goal with 25 seconds left in the OT period.

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“I felt pretty good,” Hutson told reporters in Detroit about his debut. “It was good being out there. The Red Wings got a good team and we got a good team, too. So two good teams going at it … it was fun. You never really know what to expect. I was just excited that I got to be out there.

“You’re always going to remember your first game — that’s just how it’s going to be,” Hutson added. “I’m going to remember skating around with no helmet on (for his rookie pregame initiation lap), hopefully never again. Little things like that.”

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Hutson wore No. 20 with Boston University, but that number is taken by Slafkovsky with the Canadiens so he is now wearing No. 48. Only five other players have worn that number in Canadiens history: J.J. Daigneault (1990-96), François Groleau (1996-98), Miloslav Guren (1999-2000), J.T. Wyman (2010) and Daniel Brière (2014).

There is no doubt about Hutson’s offensive abilities. The big question mark is whether he will be physically strong enough to defend against bigger forwards in the NHL. Larkin, who is 6-foot-1 and 199 pounds, was able to power past Hutson to the outside in the first minute of overtime before cutting to the net and forcing goalie Samuel Montembeault to make a big save.

But Hutson also showed why the Canadiens have big hopes for the small defenceman.

He certainly is fun to watch.

scowan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StuCowan1

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