Lane Hutson isn’t a star, according to Corey Pronman

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Lane Hutson isn’t a star, according to Corey Pronman
Credit: Matt Garies/NHLI via Getty Images

This morning, we chatted about Corey Pronman's top 156 U23 players.

We talked about the fact that Juraj Slafkovsky is ranked fourth on the list and that Ivan Demidov is the eighth-best player on Pronman's list.

They're in the “star” and “near-star and top-tier player” categories, respectively, in the rankings, which can be found on The Athletic's website this morning.

But I wanted to take the time to take a more serious look at the case of Lane Hutson, a player whom Corey Pronman has rankedStill loved as he should be in the “top-tier player” category.

Basically, he doesn't see Lane Hutson as a star.

Adam Fantilli and Michael Misa, who round out the top 10 (Lane Hutson is #11) among players ranked behind Demidov, aren't considered future stars in Corey Pronman's eyes either.

Cutter Gauthier, Porter Martone, and Cole Hutson (who is three spots behind his brother and was therefore not underrated like Lane) trail the Canadiens defenseman, who nearly averaged a point per game in 2025–2026.

Behind them, in the same category? Several players who haven't yet played in the NHL—or have played very little. We're talking about Chase Reid, Alberts Smits, Keaton Kerhoeff, Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg, and Anton Frondell.

Pronman sees only four U-23 players as stars… and four others as potential stars. In his view, no prospect drafted in 2026 will be a star. That's fair, to a certain extent, because these guys are only 18 years old.

But not including Lane Hutson among the stars is still somewhat surprising. And considering that Pronman hasn't always rated Hutson highly, one wonders if there's a negative bias toward the Habs defenseman.

After all, it's hard to see what more he could have done over the past two years in the NHL…


In a nutshell

– For those interested.

– Read more.

– Interesting.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!