Lane Hutson, Kent Hughes’ greatest pride four years after his hiring

Raphael Simard
Lane Hutson, Kent Hughes’ greatest pride four years after his hiring
Credit: Getty Images

Four years ago today, the Habs were at the very bottom of the NHL.

On January 18, 2022, not only were the Habs trotting along at the bottom of the overall standings, but they were in search of a new identity after losing the Stanley Cup Final in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning the season before.

Marc Bergevin went all-in and left his replacement with a team full of problems. His replacement was Kent Hughes, an agent few knew.

The rest is history, and all fans love their GM. Kent Hughes is a smart and patient guy: very good qualities to be a general manager in the NHL.

His experience as an agent helps him a lot in his contract negotiations, among other things.

Hughes signed a 35-goal, soon-to-be 40-goal scorer (Cole Caufield) for just $7.85 million. The Habs' best forward this season (Juraj Slafkovsky) earns $7.6 million, Noah Dobson, one of the best 200-foot defensemen, doesn't even earn $10 million.

His core (with Nick Suzuki, who was signed by Marc Bergevin) is cast in concrete. All that's missing is Ivan Demidov, who loves Montreal and is unlikely to earn more than Noah Dobson.

With the payroll on the rise, these nice contracts are very important to attract quality free agents to town, but to sign the gems coming out of the draft.

After all, Kent Hughes and his group drafted a lot of gems, and not just in the top-5. The organization found its goaltender of the future in Jacob Fowler in the third round and selected Alexander Zharovsky in the second round, even though they had him much higher up on their list. By the way, in the event of a 2025 re-draft, Corey Pronman would select him 8th.

I haven't mentioned Lane Hutson… yet.

I waited until the end, because he's THE jewel of the team, Kent Hughes' proudest achievement four years to the day after his hiring.

Hutson (the 62nd pick in the 2022 draft) is his best defenseman, a Calder Trophy winner, a defenseman who will probably finish the season with a point per game, a guy who will be one of the five finalists for the Norris, and he'll earn “only” $8.85M starting next season, until 2034.

Yesterday, he collected three points, and on his third assist on Cole Caufield's overtime goal, he reached the 50-point plateau. His team hasn't even played 50 games…

He is the second defenseman in the history of the glorious organization to achieve such a feat.

And in the NHL, he's the third-highest scorer among defensemen. He's two points behind Zach Werenski and three behind Cale Makar. And this is his second season on the Bettman circuit…

By the way, if you compare the Montreal protégé to the best in his position at the same age, he has nothing to be embarrassed about.


Overtime

– The Flames like to trade their good defensemen to the Knights.

– Mason Lohrei would have been involved in a trade had the Bruins acquired Rasmus Andersson.

– Victory defeated.

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