Flummoxed.
That was my reaction when I read The Athletic’s rating of NHL prospects under the age of 23.
Evaluating talent can be subjective, but Corey Pronman, the website’s senior development writer, is dead wrong in his assessment of Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson.
Pronman assigns tiers to 139 prospects and Hutson is 39th overall, topping Tier 5: Bubble top or middle of the lineup player.”
According to Pronman: “He’s a dynamo with the puck on his stick. Hutson has high-end poise, touch and sense with the puck, often walking the blue line using his great edge work to create time to make plays. He sees the ice at a high level and can run an NHL power play. There’s no doubting Hutson’s offence — the doubt comes down to his defence. He’s a small defenceman with good but not great feet, and he’s not very physical. He has so much offence that he could still be a top-four defenceman, but he may give back a lot of goals, too.”
Saaaay whaaat?
I hate to burst Pronman’s bubble, but it has taken half a season to prove Hutson is a TOP-TWO defenceman and a very good one at both ends of the ice.
The offence is there. He leads the rookie scoring race and he’s in the top 10 in defence scoring. One of the players trailing him in that category is Erik Karlsson, who has won the Norris Trophy three times despite the fact he is a truly atrocious defender.
Defensively, there are times when Hutson is overpowered by larger, stronger forwards and he makes rookie mistakes, but he never quits on a play. Pronman is dead wrong when he describes Hutson’s compete level as average. When you’re 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, you don’t get to the NHL with an average compete level.
Here’s how Rob Ramage, a 15-year NHL veteran who serves as the Canadiens’ director of player development, described Hutson:
“Dog on a bone. This kid is just relentless. You see the effort every shift. He leaves it out there every shift and that’s going to help him defending. Because even if he does get beat there’s going to be a second effort trying to get back into the play and then kill that play.”
Hutson is minus-4 for the season, but has been on fire since Dec. 21. He is plus-12 over a 12-game span and hasn’t been a minus in any game. He has scored two goals and added 11 assists while logging more than 25 minutes of ice time on three occasions. Montreal’s record during the run is an impressive 9-2-1.
Pronman did some backtracking in two subsequent evaluations. He cited Hutson as a prospect who has improved over the first half of the season and has him at No. 3 behind Dallas forward Logan Stankoven and Toronto’s Matthew Knies on a list of under-23 prospects who weren’t drafted in the first round.
The Athletic also asked an anonymous panel of six coaches and four goaltenders to evaluate the league’s starting goaltenders and there was no love for Montreal’s Sam Montembeault, who was placed in the last of four tiers.
Montembeault’s ranking is open to debate, but the poll loses any semblance of credibility when you consider two of the goaltenders ranked above Montembeault.
Tristan Jarry, who is in the third tier, was placed on waivers by the Pittsburgh Penguins this week and is now in the AHL.
The unanimous No. 1 is Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, which would have been a good choice in 2022 when he won the Vézina Trophy. But Shesterkin’s numbers have declined over the past three seasons and he’s one of the reasons why the Rangers trail Montreal in the standings.
Entering Thursday night’s games, Shesterkin’s record was 13-15-2 with a 2.97 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage this season. Montembeault was 16-15-3 with a 2.88 GAA and a .900 save percentage.
Talk about inflation: Fifty years ago, my longtime friend Carl Andersen sat on the 48-yard line at Notre Dame Stadium and watched Canadian Football Hall of Famer Tom Clements lead the Fighting Irish to a 48-0 rout of Army. The game marked the 50th anniversary of legendary sports writer Grantland Rice immortalizing the Four Horseman, the Notre Dame backfield of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Elmer Layden and Jim Crowley. Andersen’s ticket cost $8.50.
You’ll have to pay a lot more to watch Notre Dame play Ohio State in the U.S. college football playoff final Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The cheapest seat available on Ticketmaster is $1,300 and SeatGeek’s get-in price is $2,859. If you want a view comparable to Andersen’s, expect to pay between $4,000 and $9,000.