Top-15 Habs prospects | 3rd place: the dynamic Lane Hutson

Which comes first: the egg or the chicken?

Pardon the cliché, but it’s still the first image that comes to mind when trying to rank Hutson and Reinbacher.

Last year, Reinbacher climbed to the top of this ranking, while Hutson had to settle for^2nd place.

This year, having seen a bit more of our two Sparrows, I give Hutson a slight edge, simply by asking myself these questions: Who will have the biggest impact on the team’s future success between the two? Which one brings the most unique, hard-to-replace package?

It’s simple: by staying in the top-3 just behind you-know-who, we have no choice but to at least give Hutson a chance to one day become the Habs’ most dominant player.

The potential is there.

Without taking anything away from Reinbacher or even Fowler, the same probably can’t be said in their case.

3. Lane Hutson
Potential: 37.5/40
Insurance: 18.5/20
Usefulness/Rarity: 27/30
Trade value: 8.5/10

Total: 91.5/100

Potential

The American is simply one of those players capable of creating scoring chances out of nothing.

His offensive potential is as high as any of the recent “small defensemen” stars to emerge from American colleges: Makar, Q. Hughes and Fox.

To say otherwise is illogical both when you watch him play and when you look at his statistics.

Lane Hutson
77-30-67-97
Cale Makar
75-21-49-70
Adam Fox
64-12-56-68
Quinn Hughes
69-10-52-62
These are the first 2 yr totals .

– Al Ferguson ( Fergie) (@_AlFerg) April 12, 2024

And why should it be any different in the NHL? Here he is, in his second appearance on the ice, getting his first point with one of his favorite plays:

“Lane won’t be able to skate through the offensive zone in the NHL like he has in every single level he’s ever played”

Lane Hutson, in literally his second shift, doing exactly what he’s been doing his entire life.

He’s going to be a superstar.

pic.twitter.com/OFrVYy6RYJ

– The Habitant (@the_habitant) April 15, 2024

Then, on the defensive side, there’s no valid reason to believe that his progression will be much different from that of the same lascars who have all been able to make the small changes required.

Hutson is very combative, reads the game well and excels at retrieving pucks with his stick. You can’t expect much more from a 5’10, 170-pound guy.

Of course, because of his modest size, he’ll never be perfect defensively, and Hutson still needs to improve his backwards skating. But as Craig Button also noted, I haven’t often seen Lane Hutson get caught badly in his zone.

Yet the American’s favorite way to be a good defensive player is still to regularly find himself 180 feet from his net with the puck on his stick like a fourth forward:

We’re pretty perplexed to read that Corey Pronman called Lane Hutson’s puck skills “average” in his latest article.

This is Hutson in his 2nd career NHL game as a 20 year-old rookie. pic.twitter.com/Q3L5va4sxM

– /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) September 4, 2024

In short, Hutson’s potential is that of a player capable of revolutionizing his position as few have.

Insurance

Two NHL games don’t make a career, but it’s amazing how the brilliant way Hutson played those two games against Detroit eliminated many doubts about him, even among his most ardent critics.

Hutson’s self-confidence has improved for the third year running in this countdown.

But it’s the consistency of his performances game after game in the NCAA and at the last two WJCs that gives us such confidence that the Habs have something special in Hutson, as well as the impressive number of feats, records and nominations accumulated along the way.

Everything now points to the American being one of those “special” little players from the university ranks who eventually make it to the NHL.

A confident young man who keeps to himself and doesn’t talk much, Hutson eats hockey, trains with his brothers most of the summer in his father’s arena, and wants to be the best every time he steps on the ice.

Simply one of the most motivated individuals we’ve seen in recent years.

I still remember seeing him return to the bench alone between periods at the development camp in 2023 to visualize and focus on a red-white game!

 

Rarity/use value

For Reinbacher, even if they’re not as “good” or as complete as he is, the fact that several of the organization’s young defensemen share some of his qualities makes the Austrian a little less unique for the Habs.

Reinbacher is destined to become an excellent No. 2 or, perhaps, a good No. 1 if he develops his offense a little more. But when you look at him, you don’t necessarily see a “special” player or a superstar. Instead, we anticipate a sober, very solid and intelligent “star” defender who will play a lot of minutes.

The kind of “rare” defender who’s a little easier to find than the likes of Q. Hughes, Makar and A. Fox of this world.

I also remained a little more conservative about Hutson, classifying him as a future star player in my latest analyses, comparing the Habs’ core to a few other cores around the NHL.

But as I’ve said before in this rundown, his true potential is that of a superstar , as foreshadowed by his stint in the NCAA and the advantageous comparisons mentioned above.

Hutson is absolutely unique, and the fans who were already on the edge of their seats at his first game at the Bell Centre quickly realized it.

So, in terms of his future usefulness to the Habs, Mike Matheson is currently an offensive defenseman, but will he be around much longer?

And even if the surprising Québécois stays in Montreal beyond his current contract, is his offensive style similar to Hutson’s? And will his role with the Canadiens remain the same?

On the latter question, it’s safe to assume that his ice time will diminish significantly over the next few years, and that Hutson will take over the power-play role.

The club therefore has two seasons to assess whether it’s better with Hutson AND Matheson in the line-up, and whether it’s a good idea to extend the Québécois’ contract by clearly establishing expectations and the role they intend to assign him from the age of 32.

The only thing left to prove soon for the young American in the NHL is whether he can assert himself as a dominant player in the playoffs. This is where we still have some reservations.

Trade value

 

We’d really need to see the chain come in Hutson’s case, or the American start eating raw babies in his spare time, before we could start thinking about trading him on the 7th floor.

But with a quick and successful transition to the NHL – I’d be VERY surprised to see him end up in Laval! – Hutson’s value, like Quinn Hughes’ after his first 10 NHL games, is likely to soar even higher.

Meanwhile, his market value must have quadrupled since he was drafted 62nd overall in 2022. More often than not, the opposite is true of these late-second-round picks…

And this value could even reach stratospheric levels if, in the not-too-distant future, the Habs start making noise in the playoffs with a Hutson who continues to make his mark.

But for that, an excellent partner like Reinbacher could come in handy…

While we’re waiting to find out who’s going to be in the top-15 for 2024, we’ll continue to discuss the matter respectfully on Facebook and Twitter!