Not surprisingly, defencemen Lane Hutson and Logan Mailloux were two players who stood out as the Canadiens’ rookie camp got into full swing Thursday in Brossard.
Of the 23 players invited to the camp, which opened Wednesday with medical and physical testing, Hutson and Mailloux are the two with the best chance of making the Canadiens this season. Both of them got their first taste of the NHL last season, with Hutson playing in the Canadiens’ last two games and Mailloux playing in the season finale.
Neither of them looked out of place in those games.
Canadiens GM Kent Hughes traded two defencemen over the summer — Jordan Harris to Columbus and Johnathan Kovacevic to New Jersey — to open spots for younger players on the blue line.
Hutson arrived in Montreal about three weeks ago and has been skating since then with some of the Canadiens regulars at Brossard’s CN Sports Complex. The 20-year-old has also been looking for an apartment and said his mother will live with him this season, whether he’s playing for the Canadiens or the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
“I haven’t lived with her in a long time and I thought it would be nice for her to come,” said Hutson, who played the last two seasons at Boston University and before that spent two years with the U.S. National Development Team in Michigan. “Maybe (she’ll) stay for home games and then go back to Chicago when we’re on the road.”
Hutson stood out on the ice during drills Thursday for the same reasons he posted 30-67-97 totals in 77 games over the last two seasons at Boston University — his speed, shiftiness, vision and passing. Mailloux stood out because of his size (6-foot-3 and 220 pounds), speed and ability to cover a lot of ice effortlessly while also throwing a few solid bodychecks.
Size is the big question mark for Hutson, who is now listed at 5-foot-10 and 162 pounds. It was interesting to see Hutson and Mailloux paired together on defence for the majority of Thursday’s drills, which makes it seem likely they will be together when the Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs rookies square off in two Prospect Showdown games Saturday (1 p.m., RDS) and Sunday (1 p.m., RDS) at the Bell Centre.
“He moves very well, so he’s very easy to play with,” Hutson said about Mailloux. “Kills a lot of plays. I think we always can cover for each other or help each other out by pushing guys into bad ice.”
Mailloux described Hutson as fun to play with.
“He always finds a way to get the puck on your stick,” Mailloux said. “We kind of complement each other’s games a lot. He’s a smaller guy and I’m a bigger guy. Maybe we could kind of bring some physicality and some offensive upside. But I think both of our games are rounded out defensively enough to play together as well.”
While Hutson has a size disadvantage, he noted that not every defenceman in the NHL defends the same way and that one of his strengths is angling players.
“I feel like I can close plays quickly,” Hutson said. “If there’s not a guy I can impose physically, I push him into a tough area and try to take the puck off him. Being able to ride guys out and turn pucks up is something that I’ve been working on and something that I’m going to continue to work on as well.”
A big adjustment for Hutson this season — whether he’s with the Canadiens or the Rocket — is the amount of games after making the jump from the NCAA and playing only 38 games last season. Mailloux, 21, has a full season of pro hockey with the Rocket under his belt after posting 14-33-47 totals in 72 games last season.
While Hutson realizes the pro schedule will be much tougher, both physically and mentally, he’s not overly concerned.
“Not much concern, just excitement,” he said. “In college you lose a game, you have to wait around all week to play another one. The professional schedule, you lose one you can’t dwell on it. You got to get ready for the next game. So just excitement.”
Mailloux said he went through ups and downs last season in Laval — both individually and as a team — and learned valuable lessons about what it takes to be a pro, showing up every day with a goal to make both yourself and your teammates better while always competing hard. He also learned that little details — and the ability to do them on a consistent basis — is what can separate guys who play in the NHL and those who don’t.
His goal is definitely to make the Canadiens this season.
“But I think I kind of learned last year during camp and during the whole year that you just got to try and get a little better every day,” Mailloux said. “Definitely during camp just try and show what I got is good enough that I can be here the next day.”