One of them won the Hobey Baker Award as the outstanding player in NCAA Hockey — but went undrafted by the NHL.
One played for the USA Hockey National Development Team, shattered a career goal-scoring record set by Phil Kessel, demolished the 55-goal single-season mark set by one Auston Matthews with 72 goals, also won the Hobey Baker Award in the NCAA — and fell to 15th in the NHL draft.
One scored 63 points in 60 games with the USNDT as a 148-pound defenceman, the second highest single-season total by a blue-liner in the history of the program. He declared himself “a bit annoyed” when he tumbled all the way to 62nd overall in the 2022 draft.
They have three things in common. They played college hockey in the U.S., all three are now members of the Canadiens organization — and not one could top six feet, even in skates.
We are talking about Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, sniper Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson, the slender, 20-year-old defenceman who has bamboozled defenders and brought fans out of their seats in the beginnings of his NHL career.
It took a marvellous stroke of serendipity to bring these three together. St. Louis is a Hall of Famer who was listed at 5-foot-8 and 176 pounds when he scored 391 goals and racked up 642 assists in a 14-season NHL career.
If St. Louis accomplishes nothing else in his coaching career, he was worth the hiring for the job he did with Caufield, pulling him out of the trough where he had been cast by the ham-fisted coaching of Dominique Ducharme, then again as Caufield battled to return from shoulder surgery.
When St. Louis talks to his smaller players, he knows of what he speaks. He was doubted through his entire career and barely given a chance by the Calgary Flames before he found a home in Tampa. Even there, he was initially passed over by his own GM, Steve Yzerman, when it came time to select the Canadian team for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. St. Louis eventually made it only because teammate Steven Stamkos suffered a horrific injury.
St. Louis is still having to prove himself. He won two Art Ross Trophies, a Hart Trophy, a Lester B. Pearson Trophy and three Lady Byngs as a player who was considered undersized for his time — and when Joshua Roy was sent to Laval after a less than scintillating pre-season, social media mavens were questioning whether the coach could be tough enough to handle NHL players.
Let me tell you from personal experience, based on St. Louis’s playing days: You get a peek at those Rocket Richard eyes, you would never question the kindly coach’s fire or his toughness.
This season began with Caufield switching from No. 22 to No. 13 in honour of his hero, previous Hobey Baker winner Johnny Gaudreau, another player on the small side until he was mowed down with his brother Matthew by a belligerent drunk driver.
The No. 13 has been good luck for Caufield, who has streaked through the early phase of this season like a Roman candle, with four goals in three games. Hutson has garnered even more attention with plays that display split-second creativity, extraordinary agility and preternatural vision.
One example suffices: With a bit more than a minute to play, Lane Hutson swoops back into his own zone to get the puck and pass it across to Mike Matheson. As the rush begins, Juraj Slafkovsky flattens NHL diving champ Tim Stutzle near centre ice. (Big guys have their uses too.)
Hutson, again with the puck, eludes veteran Nick Cousins with ease and gets off a shot before Thomas Chabot can close on him. Linus Ullmark makes the save, but 30 seconds later there is Hutson again, escaping Cousins with a spinorama.
None of that appears on the scoresheet but one thing is clear: if you have to check young M. Hutson, you’re going to get very, very tired by the end of the night.
When Caufield was drafted in 2019 by Trevor Timmins and Marc Bergevin, I wrote a column saying Montreal was the perfect destination for him because of a long tradition of smaller players like Bobby Rousseau, Henri Richard and Yvan Cournoyer. The same is true of Hutson.
Somehow, NHL scouting departments can spend tens of millions of dollars and still fail to spot the potential in St. Louis, Caufield or Hutson. Truth is, the NHL is a better, more entertaining league when smaller players like St. Louis, Gaudreau, Hutson, Caufield and Quinn Hughes can not only survive but thrive alongside the big guys.
Heroes: Samuel Montembeault, Arber Xhekaj, Cole Caufield, Kaiden Guhle, Kirby Dach, Brendan Gallagher, Lane Hutson, Tyrice Beverette, Ruth Chepng’etich, Jessica Campbell, Napheesa Collier, Donnie Marshall, Andrés Iniesta &&&& last but not least, my favourite tennis player of all time, the incomparable Rafa Nadal.
Zeros: Offside replay reviews, Jabrill Peppers, Aaron Rodgers, Pat McAfee, Tom Brady in the booth, Deion Sanders, Woody Johnson, Bev Priestman, John Herdman, John Fisher, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and forever.