Lane Hutson was one of the wild cards heading into last season. After a Calder-winning campaign, he’s now someone the Canadiens are heavily counting on. What should they be expecting from him in his sophomore year?
2024-25
While it seems crazy to think now, one of the storylines heading into training camp was simply if Hutson would make the team. While he had shown plenty of offensive promise in college, the NHL is a different level and being a smaller player, some thought he might need some time in Laval. Yeah, that wasn’t necessary.
He showed pretty quickly that he had the skills to not only hang on in the NHL but thrive. Still, the Habs opted not to completely throw him to the wolves right off the bat. He played big minutes early on but he wasn’t moved onto the top power play right away as Mike Matheson remained in that role following his career year.
But a couple of months in, Hutson was in that role and boy, did he take off. He had a seven-game point streak snapped in early December and soon after, he put a five-game stretch together before the holiday break. Then, after the calendar flipped to January, he put a nine-game stint with at least a point in each one. This is from a rookie defenceman, don’t forget.
The end result was that Hutson tied Larry Murphy for the NHL record for most assists by a rookie defenceman while also setting the franchise record for most assists and points by a freshman blueliner. His 66 points were tied for the fourth-most all-time by an NHL defender. Not too shabby for a second-round pick.
Hutson was leaned on heavily in the playoffs with the Habs struggling to score offensively. He didn’t score but wound up being the team leader in points, averaging an assist per game over their five games. The extra physicality of the playoffs didn’t seem to affect him much, allowing him to end his season on a pretty good note.
Regular Season Stats: 82 GP, 6-60-66, -2, 34 PIMS, 1 PPG, 0 GWG, 91 shots, 22:44 ATOI
Playoff Stats: 5 GP, 0-5-5, -0, 2 PIMS, 0 PPG, 0 GWG, 5 shots, 24:50 ATOI
5-Year Averages
Considering that Hutson’s NHL career is last season plus two games, let’s just skip this section.
2025-26 Role
For someone who had that type of rookie season, you’d think at first glance that he’d be entrenched in the same role he had before, if not a bigger one. But that isn’t necessarily going to be the case thanks to the addition of Noah Dobson in a draft-day swap with the Islanders. With Dobson and Matheson appearing to be the top pairing heading into the season, Hutson will instead remain on the second pairing at five-on-five, playing on his off-side alongside Kaiden Guhle.
Meanwhile, his power play time might be taking a hit. For starters, it appears as if Montreal’s intention is to try to run two relatively balanced units with Hutson anchoring one and Dobson the other. Instead of extended runs with a loaded top group, it looks as if Martin St. Louis will try to keep things equal, at least early on. For someone who had 26 power play points last season, that’s something to take note of.
Last season, Hutson was seldom deployed shorthanded, averaging just 13 seconds a game in that regard. Most of that probably came with the team on the penalty kill in the final couple of minutes of play. The retirement of David Savard probably doesn’t change much for Hutson in that regard; he’s still someone they’re probably not going to be using unless they absolutely have to. And really, given his importance to Montreal’s attack and his smaller stature, he’s probably not someone anyone cheering for the Habs should want out in those situations anyway.
Projected Stats
When you have a top young talent like Hutson, there’s a temptation to think that there’s only one way for him to go, further up. But Dobson’s presence on the roster is going to cut into Hutson’s offensive minutes. He might play a bit less on the power play but it’s also not a guarantee that he’s going to be out with Nick Suzuki’s line quite as often. As a result, barring an injury to Dobson, I expect Hutson’s point total to go down this season. That wouldn’t necessarily be a step back either, just a byproduct of what they’re hoping will be a more balanced attack, something that should help them in the long run.
Of Montreal’s players, Hutson is one that I’d be suggesting buyer beware on. Yes, he was in the upper echelon of point getters from the back end last season which helped offset a lack of contributions in other categories (shots and hits in particular) but if he’s not going to produce as much, he shouldn’t be going in the first few rounds. His Yahoo ADP is 50.8 (11th among defencemen) which seems a bit early given the above. Oddly enough, his ESPN ADP is much lower at 94.7, 16th among rearguards. That seems a bit late. I like him sort of between the two, landing in the 70s. That’s the fifth or sixth round in most standard drafts and a fair spot to balance the potential upside of a youngster against more competition for premium minutes. Either way, even if there is a dip in production, he’s going to be a huge part of Montreal’s attack again this season.
GP: 80
Goals: 8
Assists: 50
Points: 58
+/-: +7
PIMS: 32
PPG: 2
GWG: 1
Shots: 114