Is anyone not on the Lane Train?
I think it’s fair to say that any Montrealer with an interest in the sport of hockey is currently in a state of awe in the face of the play of Lane Hutson.
For heaven’s sake, even my old friend Simon (Snake) Boisvert, one of the brightest hockey-scouting minds in town, reversed his previously way-too-harsh opinion on the young defenceman from Holland, Mich. On his podcast with La Presse scribe Mathias Brunet this week, Boisvert — who had in the past slammed Hutson as a one-dimensional “gadget player” — admitted he was wrong.
Boisvert told Brunet this week that if the 2022 draft was to be held again, he’d draft Hutson either first or second overall. (Who was his other guy in the top two? A certain Logan Cooley, who was picked third that year by the Arizona Coyotes, now the Utah Hockey Club, who certainly on Tuesday in Salt Lake City looked a heck of a lot better than 2022 first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky of the Habs.)
Everyone loves Lane. Well except for at least one writer with The Athletic, Corey Pronman, who this week published a ranking of the top NHL players and prospects under 23 and inexplicably slotted Hutson in at the No. 39 spot. He writes that “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.” That, to be polite, is absolute hogwash, as anyone who’s actually been watching Canadiens games this season knows.
Boisvert is right. Hutson, who is only 20 and has played just 45 games in the NHL, is playing like a guy who should’ve been drafted first or second overall. That Montreal was able to select him at No. 62 in the second round of the 2022 draft is astonishing. All of the other GMs goofed big time on this, but in a way so did Habs GM Kent Hughes because Hutson is a way better player than the three dudes Hughes picked before him (Slafkovsky, Filip Mesar and Owen Beck.)
Hutson went so late for one reason — size. At the time he was 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, which is tiny for an NHL defenceman. Today he’s still only 5-foot-9 and 162 pounds.
But he’s so fast on his feet and so smart on the ice that it doesn’t matter. He proved that Tuesday against Utah, with a three-point night that put him seventh in points among defencemen in the league and first among all rookies.
He has three goals and 32 assists in 43 games this season. But it’s the way he got those points Tuesday that was so amazing. On Kirby Dach’s first goal, his slick moves at the centre of the ice drew four players from Utah and he just waited it out, deked and darted around them, and then sent a perfect pass to Dacher as he was coming across the blue line. One beautiful move from the Dach and the puck was in the back of the net.
His setup on the Cole Caufield goal was just as impressive, sending a blistering shot-pass to No. 13 that rocketed in off his stick.
He’s been doing that all season. Many doubted this diminutive D-man could recreate what he did in U.S. university hockey in the best hockey league in the world. Well he can.
He has those now-famous head feints, where he looks one way and then heads in the opposite direction. It doesn’t hurt that he’s incredibly quick on his feet. Folks like Pronman from The Athletic write he’s likely to be weak defensively, but his speed and hockey smarts ensure that he often ends up with the puck in his own zone, as happened numerous times Tuesday. Sure he won’t be the guy laying on the monster hits, but that’s not his job.
If he continues at this pace, he could beat out first-overall 2024 pick Macklin Celebrini and win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
The last Hab to win the Calder was Ken Dryden in 1972. On Wednesday, TVA Sports reporter Renaud Lavoie said on radio station BPM Sports that Hutson will one day win the Norris as the league’s best defenceman and I agree. The last Canadien to win that piece of hardware was P.K. Subban in the shortened 2012-2013 season.
The fans I spoke with Tuesday at McLean’s Pub before the Utah game were effusive in their praise for Hutson.
“The first game he played, the most impressive thing I noticed was his footwork,” said Habs fan Michael Wheeler. “He’s immaculate with his edges. He knows how to read a play. The other benefit of having him is he’s shifty. He looks one way and he cuts the other way. He has this vision of the play that as a smaller guy he knows how not to be caught. He knows how to get out of sticky situations.”
Added Gabriel Mercier: “I didn’t think he’d have such an immediate impact, but I thought he’d eventually be as good as this.”
His friend Jérémie Rousseau was just as enthused about Hutson.
“He could win the Calder but the player who was picked first overall (Celebrini) probably has a big lead amongst voters just in terms of perception,” Rousseau said. “(Hutson) brings something unique to Montreal. His size might have an impact on his defensive play, like in terms of moving people out of the front of the net, but it’s not an issue at all offensively.”
The last line on Hutson comes from a Facebook conversation about him Wednesday. Mick O’Grady noted that Hutson “moves like Serge Savard.” To which Mike Groenendaal replied: “A Savardian spinarama or a Hutsonian headfake-arama?”
BOOM!