Sabtu, 13 April 2024

Signing Lane Hutson brings Canadiens’ most progressive prospect into the fold - The Athletic

OTTAWA, Ont., and ST. PAUL, Minn. — Lane Hutson was sitting in the Boston University Terriers team lounge at their hotel in downtown St. Paul on Wednesday afternoon, reminiscing a bit but mainly looking forward to facing the University of Denver in the Frozen Four semifinal the following day.

He didn’t know at the time it would be the final collegiate game of his young career, but the prospect of joining the Montreal Canadiens once that day came was something that had been following Hutson around all season, and now that situation was coming to a head. And he had already been preparing for it.

“I talk to (Logan) Cooley quite often,” Hutson said. “I texted him when he was going through it too, seeing what he was thinking. Seeing how he seamlessly transitioned gives me a little idea. He’s (a) pretty special player, but … he’s like, ‘It’s a sport; it’s fun.’ It’s not anything game-breaking.

“We’re here to have fun. We’re here to entertain people watching.”

Hutson is definitely entertaining, but there is more to him than that.

When the Canadiens drafted Hutson at the Bell Centre in Montreal a little under two years ago, their co-director of amateur scouting, Nick Bobrov, referred to Hutson as a “big brain.” Hutson’s ability to process information on the ice and in the film room has long been his calling card.

Basically, a player tailor-made to play for Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis.

“I feel like, especially in recent years, (video is) such a good tool to have,” Hutson said. “Just being able to watch all the best players, watching yourself, see what you can work on. It’s pretty cool. Even growing up, watching TV, watching Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, all those guys, because I’m a Chicago kid. Watching those guys growing up was really special.”

The next day, Hutson’s Terriers fell in overtime to Denver in the national semifinals, and a day later, on Friday, Hutson signed his entry-level contract with the Canadiens.

Hutson will be meeting the team in Detroit on Sunday evening, where the Canadiens will be taking on the Red Wings on Monday.

And lining up opposite Hutson will be none other than Kane. Not a bad way to make your NHL debut.

Hutson’s arrival to the Canadiens comes a little over three weeks after David Reinbacher arrived from Switzerland. Reinbacher has played nine games with the Laval Rocket in the AHL alongside Logan Mailloux, another big piece of the Canadiens’ future on the blue line. On the big club, Kaiden Guhle has taken a major step this season, as has Arber Xhekaj. Jayden Struble and Jordan Harris have shown themselves to be well-rounded, strong skating options to round out the future defence corps in Montreal, and Justin Barron is getting an opportunity to show what he has learned since being sent down to Laval in January.

But Hutson is unique among this group, one of one, a player who aspires to fit a new NHL mold of undersized defencemen who can compete thanks to their shiftiness, elite feet and, most importantly, fast-twitch minds.

When the Canadiens were in Vancouver three weeks ago, Canucks captain Quinn Hughes was asked an innocuous question about how he found his transition from the NCAA, where he excelled at the University of Michigan, to the NHL. Hughes began by saying he learned he couldn’t beat NHL players with his feet as easily as he did in the NCAA and that he had to learn to trust his teammates more. But then he acknowledged that he knew what the question was actually about.

“I figure why you’re asking,” Hughes said, “but I’m sure he’ll figure it out and he’ll be fine.”

Hutson, as it turns out, also looks to Hughes as someone he aspires to be like in the NHL, along with New York Rangers defenceman Adam Fox. In other words, the front-runner to win the Norris Trophy this season and the winner from 2021. A pretty high bar.

“Yeah, if I can be half as good as any of those guys, I’d be in a pretty good spot,” Hutson said. “I strive to be one of them. You never know what happens or how things will play out. If I can be even a third of one of those guys, you’re in a pretty good spot.”

Hutson said the Canadiens more or less left him alone for most of the season, trusting the BU coaching staff led by Jay Pandolfo, who back in December predicted just how much St. Louis would enjoy coaching Hutson.

“The stuff Marty had to overcome to become the player he became, which is pretty incredible, obviously, being an undersized guy, I think he’ll really, really enjoy coaching Lane. I really do,” Pandolfo said then. “I think he’ll have a lot of respect for the way he plays the game, and I think that certainly could help Lane as well.”

But another element is how Pandolfo’s description of Hutson this week in St. Paul sounds exactly like someone St. Louis would love to coach.

“It starts with his hockey IQ; he’s just a really intelligent hockey player,” Pandolfo said just before the Frozen Four. “He can read plays very well. He’s a step or two ahead of everyone else out there. He sees things before they even open up. Besides that, he’s really competitive. He does not like to lose at anything he does. Every single day in practice, that’s how he is. He competes at every drill. That’s how he’s wired. That helps him.

“Never mind the skill level he has. But when you have that competitiveness to go along with it, it goes a long way.”

The challenge for Hutson will be to prove he can play at the NHL level without the puck, to defend and get the puck back so he can do what he does best in the offensive zone. It could take time, but Pandolfo believes his hockey IQ combined with that competitiveness will make it a non-issue before long.

But that is a traditional way of looking at a hockey player, and Hutson is not a traditional hockey player. He is a player who represents where the game is going, not where it’s been, and that is why the Canadiens should be excited to have him make his NHL debut Monday.

“Definitely, I think the game is changing,” Hutson said. “It’s going to continue to change. Let’s just see where the game goes.”

(Photo of Lane Hutson at the Frozen Four: Richard T Gagnon / Getty Images)

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2024-04-13 05:04:32Z
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