Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson cemented himself in hockey history with his Calder Trophy-winning rookie season last year. His 60 assists tied Larry Murphy for the most ever recorded by a rookie defender, while his 66 total points ranked fifth in history. Hutson’s company on the leaderboards is full of Hall-of-Fame talent, including Chris Chelios (50 A, 56 TP as a rookie), Nicklas Lidstrom (49 A, 60 TP), and Ray Bourque (48 A, 65 TP). But despite the warm company, Hutson still faces a task unlike any of his highly-touted peers. He has to show he can follow it up.
Many former high-scoring, rookie defenders have earned their keep on both ends of the ice. Hutson breaks that mold. He is the first to ever cross the 60-point – or, even the 50-point – mark while recording a negative plus-minus. The only players to manage similar feats were Phil Housley, Quinn Hughes, and Moritz Seider – who each finished their rookie campaigns short of both the 50-point mark and positive plus-minus. That certainly speaks to the high-event ice time Hutson experienced, but it shouldn’t come as a direct attack on his defensive acumen.
Instead, it’s a testament to Hutson’s deeply unique style. He’s a hyper-mobile defender, who uses crafty stickhandling and skillful skating to sneak into the tightest spaces between opponents. Many defenders have excelled with those talents, but few are rarely look as gifted as Hutson. That degree of finesse helps Hutson make up for an otherwise scrawny frame – though one not lacking any physical gumption – in a way that seems reminiscent of former greats like Housley.
But where Housley went on to net 1,232 career points, the next highest-scoring defenseman under the height of 5’11” was Randy Carlyle, who finished his career with 647 points. That’s an extreme gap, not helped by the fact that Carlyle weighed in at over 200-pounds.
The NHL is not built to support nimble and skillful offensive-defensemen. It’s too heavy and physical of a league. And yet, Hutson showed no signs of struggling as he stomped his way to Montreal’s top defender role last season. He blazed that path with the same agility, instinct, and cool-headedness that’s made him successful as far back as youth hockey.
Then again, NHL game planning is better than ever as teams begin to lean on video tracking and analytics to support their pre-game prep. Many of Hutson’s break-ins came on the outskirts of the offensive zone, and his scoring chances from creative passes after working into space on the boards or behind the net. As teams adjust for that, Hutson will face the imposing question of if he can adjust his game too. Putting on more weight and continuing to improve at getting back on defense could go a long way towards building the full, all-three-zones ability that could push Hutson’s game to a truly special level. But if teams catch on to how to stop him before he has time to take the next step, he could quickly struggle to make the same plays he always has.
That will be the task that faces Hutson next season – and its result could define Montreal’s blue-line for years to come. Hutson is up for a new contract next summer, and could sign an extension at any point now that July 1st has passed. Of the nine other defensemen to score at least 60 points in their rookie year, seven have gone on to play in over 1,000 NHL games. The other two still managed hundreds of games of their own (Reed Larson, 904; Barry Beck, 615). And yet, it’s hard to think any have deviated from the view of average NHL defender quite like Hutson.
He’s among tremendous company, and seems headed for many years of incredible hockey after such a strong start. But it seems that the true, special aspects of Hutson’s career will be defined by how his sophomore season goes. In proving he can continue to perform at all-star levels, Hutson will not only earn what’s sure to be a lofty contract next summer, but could cement his spot in Montreal’s top role for the next seven or eight seasons. He’s now joined by fellow, flashy company in Noah Dobson – and could get the support from more defensively-focused peers like Kaiden Guhle, Alexandre Carrier, and Mike Matheson.
The extent to which that supporting cast can boost Hutson to an encore performance will make his 2025-26 campaign much-watch hockey, even after he’s earned the ’Rookie of the Year’ title in a special Calder Trophy race.
As a leaf fan im not happy that montreal stole this kid in the second round, montreal started off bad thats when hutson went the big minuses with a ton of empty net goals against. Lane improved his defensive game a lot as the season went on going to be fun to watch this kid grow his game
His defensive metrics didn’t improve at all throughout the season. He was caved in on that side of the puck all year.
If you need help understanding defensive analytics just ask I don’t know how much you watched this kid but even just his basic defensive stats were night and day from the first 3rd of the season on? Kid is an all star and let’s not forget the offensive numbers this kid put up were up there all time for rookie dmen. Clear cut winner of the Calder and it wasn’t really close
He scored five points in five playoff games… and still managed an -5. What makes that most impressive is he did that while having 87.5% of his starts and draws in the o-zone. I didn’t watch him enough during the regular season to weigh in on his “arc of improvement” but the offensive numbers were, as you said, “all time” and the Calder was decisive. Doubly impressive given how good Celebrini looked. Still, can a team win with that guy in the playoffs? How the addition of Dobson affects his game will be fascinating to see.
Weird schtick you got going on as a leafs fan
Makes you wonder if his defensive shortcomings can be overcome in the playoffs. I watched Bouchard give the puck away time and time again and you can’t do that in the finals let alone the playoffs period.
Bouchard is only 25 did not enjoy his time under coach roy, everything you read about coach St. Louis is players love playing for him, an article on cole caufield on how St. Louis really taught him how to play in both ends of the ice was a great read and looking at caufields defensive metrics from last year to the previous year it worked i think he can do the same with Bouchard. When marty played he really had to learn the game when it was a “ big mans game” i have always been a huge fan of Marty’s not drafted in to the nhl everyone talking about his work ethic and how he was always learning more and more turning into an amazing player!
Better get him a big mean partner!
Excellent article, the absolute best write-up I read on Hutson.
Thanks Gabriel.
Agreed. Gabriel was ‘in the zone’ while writing this post, one of the best things I’ve read on any topic in a long time. A+
Is that because you are or are not Canadians fans?
I only ask because applauding a piece of media as much as this and likely as a fan is somewhat inconspicuously connected to bias.
It’s like…Kone Bryan was good in his rookie season. Will he be good again?
Maybe it’s my critique of journalism and for that I apologize
Can’t edit Kobe!
I’m a leaf fan and a big hutson fan the article was well written especially for people that didn’t watch lane that much during the season
Agree – I like the slightly longer, in depth items like this (especially at this point in the offseason) that dive in a bit further. Raises some good points looking to the upcoming season but also a fair assessment of a pretty unique player.
It’s neither because I’m a Habs fan or not. For the record I’m not. It’s the best write-up I’ve read because it does a good job of fully exploring the accomplishments while also presenting a pragmatic view of the challenges that still lie ahead for Hutson.
Most articles I’ve come across do not go anywhere near discussing the complexity involved in trying to consider “what” exactly Lane Hutson is. Foley does an excellent job of raising this question and then actually examining the breadth of possibilities from a true superstar to a flawed fascination. And he does this with brevity and clarity. That’s excellent journalism.
If all you got out of it was, ‘Hutson had a good rookie season, will he be good again’, I’m not sure you were paying attention.
the words chosen took me for a ride… was an English Lit major in college and have always loved to read and write — not often that a hockey news post takes me on a well written imagery ride, which is what Gabriel’s article did. I don’t care at all about Hutson, not my type of player because he wont make it through 3 rounds of playoffs, and I am def not a fan of the overhyped Canadiens.
Foley tried to capture the spirit of the thing
…just like Dickie Dunn.
I always find it amusing when someone says “ he wont make it through 3 rounds of the playoffs” yet probably never really watched him play, the kid does not get hit! People used to say that about marty St. Louis aswell because of his his size……how was his nhl career also caufield yet he went to the cup finals a couple of years ago
I appreciate all the kind words in this thread! I’m Chicago-based and have had the chance to watch Lane for a long time, so it’s always special to get to write about him here!
Spot on. The goofs who toss out stuff like this or babble about a guy being a cancer in the room don’t have the ability to think for themselves and don’t know that much about the game so they simply spew worn out cliches in an attempt to hang on the fringes of a conversation.
Does he kill penalties?
I really hate +/-as an analysis tool.
There are commonalities across the board that are impossible to ignore, but they get pushed aside for anomalies of randomness. The simple rule of thumb is that if you play heavy minutes on a mediocre or bad team, you’ll be a minus player, but if you play lots of minutes on a good team, you’ll be a plus player. 95% of NHL players fall into these two categories annually, the rest is statistical variance on a year by year basis. Let’s revisit Hutson if he’s still a minus player and Montreal is a Cup threat in three or four years. Sample size is wayyyy too small to establish a trend.