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Top-50 NHL prospects: only three 2022 draft defensemen ahead of Hutson
As we all know, the Montreal Canadiens have one of the best prospect banks in the National Hockey League.

In recent years, the CH has stocked up on a number of quality prospects, especially on defense.

The Tricolore seems to be drafting much better over the past few years, which is likely to greatly facilitate the current rebuild in Montreal.

Several of the organization’s prospects seem to have very interesting potential, but only time will tell if they end up giving us what we expect of them.

As I mentioned earlier, the CH is particularly strong on defense.

The addition of David Reinbacher in the most recent draft only solidifies this observation.

The presence of several solid defensive prospects is one of the main reasons why the vast majority of fans were so frustrated when Reinbacher was selected over Michkov.

In short, the CH currently has on its hands some potentially excellent future top-4 or even first-pair NHL defensemen.

However, many other NHL defenseman prospects outstrip those of the CH.

In fact, nine defensemen (including David Reinbacher) are ahead of Lane Hutson in the most recent top-50 NHL prospect list.

Hutson ranks a respectable 26th behind nine other defenders.

These are Luke Hughes (5th), Simon Nemec (7th), David Jiricek (8th), Simon Edvinsson (11th), Brandt Clarke (11th), Pavel Mintyukov (16th), David Reinbacher (17th), Alexander Nikishin (20th) and Olen Zellweger (23rd).

What’s obvious when you look only at the defensemen in this top-50 is that the New Jersey Devils have the two best defensive prospects in the entire NHL.

Not just the best, but the two best in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec.

So, we realize that there’s a much better bank of defensive prospects than the CH.

Getting back to Hutson, what’s most striking is that only three defensemen (Nemec, Jiricek and Mintyukov) from his draft to date surpass him in a ranking of the NHL’s top prospects, while 17 defensemen were selected before him in 2022.

Hutson was drafted 62nd that year.

Once again, Kent Hughes and his team look like geniuses for getting their hands on such a diamond in the rough late in the second round.

Many teams must be biting their fingers right now for choosing another defenseman over Hutson.

Let’s see if the little defenseman can reach his full NHL potential.


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