The Montreal Canadiens have gotten their young defensive star locked up for the foreseeable future. According to a team announcement, the Canadiens have signed Lane Hutson to an eight-year, $70.8MM ($8.85MM AAV) contract extension.
Shortly after the announcement, PuckPedia broke down the structure of Hutson’s new extension:
- Year 1: $1MM salary, $11MM signing bonus
- Year 2: $1MM salary, $11MM signing bonus
- Year 3: $1MM salary, $9.5MM signing bonus
- Year 4: $1MM salary, $6.5MM signing bonus
- Year 5: $1.2MM salary, $6MM signing bonus
- Year 6: $1.2MM salary, $6MM signing bonus, 10 team no-trade clause
- Year 7: $2.2MM salary, $5MM signing bonus, 10-team no-trade clause
- Year 8: $7.2MM salary, 10-team no-trade clause
The news is somewhat of a surprise, given last week’s update from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Friedman noted that while both parties were close on terms and salary, there was a disagreement regarding “philosophy” concerning a Retirement Compensation Agreement (RCA). This agreement was the Canadiens’ attempt to maximize Hutson’s after-tax earnings while keeping his salary below $10MM.
In our update regarding Hutson, PHR’s Josh Erickson broke down an RCA, writing, “An RCA agreement allows a player to defer up to 49% of their salary – delaying earnings but retaining more of them. The deferred money isn’t taxed at its usual rate, which can exceed 50% in Canada for top NHL earners. Whatever is deferred is split in half, with one half going to a refundable deposit with Canada’s tax agency and the other half going into the trust. After an American player (i.e., Hutson) retires and returns to the United States, they receive the deposit back with no tax deducted. In contrast, withdrawals from the trust are taxed at American federal and state rates, which are often lower than the rates the player would pay in Canada.”
In their announcement, the Canadiens didn’t allude to the inclusion of an RCA in the new extension, and we’ll likely never know. Still, today’s agreement indicates that it wasn’t as much of a hangup as previously believed.
Objectively, Hutson’s most obvious comparable would be New Jersey Devils’ defenseman Luke Hughes, who signed a seven-year, $63MM deal shortly before the start of the 2025-26 season. Impressively, the Canadiens were able to keep Hutson’s salary lower than Hughes’ (albeit minimally), while gaining another year of him on the roster.
Still, this contract is more of a gamble than Hughes’ is. Despite winning the Calder Memorial Trophy last season as the league’s top rookie, Hutson only has 92 games of NHL experience (including playoffs) compared to Hughes’ 161.
Regardless, Hutson made the most of his only full season in the league. He tied Larry Murphy’s all-time assist record for rookie defensemen (60), and tied Phil Housley with 66 points, the fourth-most in NHL history for a freshman blueliner. Further, Hutson finished 9th in voting for the James Norris Memorial Trophy, joining Rasmus Dahlin, Thomas Harley, and Jake Sanderson as the only under-25 defenseman to finish top-10 in voting.
Unfortunately, although his offensive prowess is palpable, Hutson brings a lot of question marks on the defensive side of the puck. He finished last year with an 88.7% on-ice save percentage at even strength, despite starting 66.7% of his shifts in the offensive zone.
Meanwhile, although he spent much of the year next to Jayden Struble, his primary defensive partner was Kaiden Guhle before he suffered a longer-term injury. According to MoneyPuck, when paired with Guhle, who is his defensive partner this season, the two combined for a 48.1% xGoals%, which was middle-of-the-pack production on a playoff-caliber Canadiens lineup.
Another cause for concern would be Hutson’s size. While height and weight have become less important for forwards, they remain significant qualities for most teams’ defensive cores in the league. Hutson stands at 5’9″, 162 lbs, which may make him more susceptible to injuries, especially if Montreal lines up against a heavy-hitting team such as the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Regardless, Montreal now has three of its top-four defensemen signed to long-term contracts. Even after Hutson’s contract takes effect, the Canadiens will have approximately $28MM in cap space, leaving them plenty of room to sign Mike Matheson and keep their defensive core intact for the foreseeable future.
Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.
Holy overpay
Holy are you dumb
I expected him to top 9. Not an overpay.
Agreed. Doesn’t look at all like an overpay in the current market.
Yes. bBut they still overplayed.
It will all come down to how the very small defenseman performs in the playoffs.
No, it will all come down to how durable Hutson can be.
Over a point per game in the playoffs so far
4 or 5games, nice but not enough of a sample
Only seen him a few times, but he seems closer to Torey Krug than Quinn Hughes to me.
Small defenseman without a particularly notable skill set.
I’m skeptical.
Way better now than Krug ever was he is close to Hughes and better than the younger Hughes
How does this affect their salary cap given the low salary and the high signing bonuses?
both signing bonus and salary combined over the contracts duration AAV (Average Annual Salary) combined all the money guaranteed over the contracts and divide by the years is 8×8.5M AAV so the salary cap isn’t affected by it its more like some players have low salary and high signing bonuses upfront vice versa
Thanks for that NSco
Also, in general, players like to get paid more in signing bonuses in order to make it tougher on the team to buy them out.
Since base salary is used in buyout calculations, a very low base salary creates minimal savings for a team.
Good deal for team and player.
Another millionaire gaming the system to not pay their share of taxes.
How?
Holy discount here
Cale Makar hand raised!!
What an absolute steal! Everyone of the talking heads are in disbelief that Hughes got him for such a low AAV!