62 points for Lane Hutson: P.K. Subban was already a Norris finalist with less than that

Lane Hutson collected three points yesterday. In a 3-2 win, it made a bit of a difference.

Lane Hutson now has 62 points this season in 74 games. He only has five goals, but it’s clear: the guy knows how to generate offense like few defensemen in the league can.

And it’s making a difference this season.

For the 10th time in history and for the first time since Nicklas Lindstrom in 1991-1992, a rookie defenseman has reached 60 points in a season. Calder Trophy, anyone?

With 57 assists, Hutson holds the record for most assists by a rookie defenseman in the history of the habs (Chris Chelios had 55), which is no small feat.

We could sing his praises until tomorrow morning.

Right now, Hutson is at the top of the rookie scorers. And when looking at defensemen, only Cale Makar, Zack Werenski, and Quinn Hughes are ahead of him.

Want to put things into perspective?

In 2014-2015, P.K. Subban was a finalist for the Norris Trophy, given to the defenseman of the year. He had 60 points, two fewer than Lane Hutson – and Hutson’s season isn’t over yet.

In 2017-2018, his second season in Nashville? Norris finalist… with 59 points.

Of course, the NHL has changed since then, as in 2015, Jamie Benn was the top scorer in the NHL with 87 points. And Subban was six points behind Erik Karlsson at the top of the scoring list for defensemen.

It’s also worth mentioning that Subban had a better shot than Lane Hutson and hit the ice a lot more.

But it still puts things into perspective to remind us that what Lane Hutson is doing as a rookie (and keeping in mind that his season isn’t over) is really, really noteworthy – and worthy of a Calder.

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