Hockey

Nick Suzuki is pleased with the contract signed by Lane Hutson
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Nick Suzuki is pleased with the contract signed by Lane Hutson
Credit: Getty Images

Does Lane Hutson at $8.85 million a year sound like a bargain to you? I guess so.Of course, if the Canadiens ever have a good season, you have to wonder if Kent Hughes will have a chance of winning GM of the Year,and he's the one we'll have to sign for the long term one day, as Maxim Lapierre put it.

Seeing the negotiations come out on social networks affected the case, but Kent Hughes managed to get the defenseman at his price. It just complicated things, and no doubt delayed the matter, considering Hughes wanted the contract signed before the start of the season. It's just a week too late.

Finally, at $8.85M, Hutson earns more per year than Suzuki. That said, if we get out our calculator, we realize that in the first year of Suzuki's contract and in the first year of Hutson's contract, the captain has an advantage. What is it? In 2022-2023, Suzuki's contract ($7.875 million, signed by Marc Bergevin) represented 9.5% of the salary cap. And in 2026-2027, with an estimated cap hit of $104 million, Hutson will represent 8.5% of the cap. Suzuki may earn less than Hutson per year for years to come, but taking into account the cap and the percentage at the time of signing (a technique often used in modern NHL negotiations), the captain is above the American defenseman. Using the same logic, Cole Caufield (9.4% in 2023-2024) is also above Hutson. However, this season, Juraj Slafkovsky is below Hutson: the Slovak is at 7.9%. But in the end, even if he didn't necessarily have a say in the negotiations, Nick Suzuki is happy to see that Hutson took a discount to stay in town and help the club win.

Kent Hughes, for his part, isn't ready to say whether his defenseman took a discount or not. In his eyes, the market has been hard to read for the past few months, but hey: Hughes has to run his club and make it work. And clearly, on this one, he succeeded. spacer title='Overtime']- The guys are happy for Lane Hutson.

– Well.

– Interesting.

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