Hockey

Hutson: The Habs wanted to give him less than $9M per season (with deferred money)
Marc-Olivier Cook
Hutson: The Habs wanted to give him less than $9M per season (with deferred money)
Credit: Getty Images

Elliotte Friedman has some new information about Lane Hutson's upcoming new contract. What is it? Basically, the informer mentions in an article that the Canadiens wanted to give him less than $9M per season with money deferred in the contract (which is no longer possible as of yesterday). The Habs also wanted to take advantage of the fact that Hutson had a tax break to offer him a contract for less than $9 M per year… but the defenseman wasn't interested in going that route.

Hutson's representatives were above the $72 M mark (which isn't ridiculous), but disagreed philosophically on the deferred money and the capital lease.

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Elliotte Friedman

Friedman, in his text, adds that there is “a lot of disappointment” that there has been no signed agreement yet. And he mentions that, at the moment, the Habs and Hutson are at an impasse “until everyone calms down”, even though there were discussions yesterday.

It's peculiar to know that the Canadiens wanted to go down this road. But we realize that the Habs management had some interest in deferred money since in The Reconstruction (on Crave), we hear Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes talk about a deferred-money contract for Jake Evans – which didn't happen in the end.

We've never seen a guy in Montreal sign a contract like that, but clearly, the Habs had that option on the table.All this to say, then, that negotiations between Hutson and the Canadiens seem to be a little complicated at the moment, even if both sides have the same idea in mind: Hutson wants to stay and the Habs want to have him in Montreal for several years. But when it comes to salary, that seems to be the stumbling block… and now we have to wonder how the Canadiens and the defenseman are going to reach an agreement. It's starting to look like it's time for this file to come to an end, that said…

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– To be continued.

– Hehe.

🤪

– Me neither, Max…

– Interesting.

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