Lane Hutson netted his third goal of the playoffs on Monday night, in the Montreal Canadiens' overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
He looks like a matador on ice, his slight figure baiting bullish forecheckers with a red sweater before dodging them with an almost arrogant swish of the hips. The spectators even say Olé.
Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens forces you to think in metaphors, because the last thing he looks like is a hockey player. With a perhaps generously listed height of 5-foot-9, he is dwarfed not only by his teammates but by most of the sportswriters in his postgame scrums. His “playoff beard” is a few wisps of mustache. Even his teammates can’t help but gently infantilize him.
“He’s a kid that’s really hard on himself,” said forward Joe Veleno, 26, a whole four years Hutson’s senior. “I referred to him as a kid, you know: no facial hair. He’s just small. I just picture him as a kid.”
That kid happens to be the best player on an Eastern Conference finalist, just two years into his NHL career and already drawing heady comparisons from flattering sources.
Montreal Canadiens teammates stood up for star defenceman Lane Hutson after falling behind 2-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference. Hutson’s giveaway led to Carolina’s overtime winner in Game 3.
The Canadian Press
After Hutson’s rookie season, none other than Serge Savard declared him “probably the most talented player” for the Canadiens since Guy Lafleur. If that sounds like hyperbole, remember that it was coming from a man who won five Stanley Cups with Lafleur in the 1970s, was a Hall of Fame defenceman in his own right, and then served as general manager for two more Cup-winning Habs teams in 1986 and 1993.
If Lafleur is already Hutson’s benchmark, Bobby Orr is a closer point of stylistic comparison. Standing behind his net with the puck, the 22-year-old always threatens to break the game open with a slaloming rush or a visionary pass. On Monday night he produced one of each, to tie and then nearly win Game 3 of the team’s series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
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His goal in the second period, after a give-and-go-and-give with Cole Caufield spanning almost the length of the ice, was the most inspired thing either team has pulled off all series. The two-line pass Hutson fired to launch a Nick Suzuki breakaway 30 seconds into overtime should have ended it, but for a misfire from the captain. Both plays emerged from nothing, or rather from the prodigious imagination of number 48.
For all his explosiveness, what Hutson wanted to talk about in the locker room Monday night was a defensive lapse that he felt cost his team the game, a lazy pass to clear his zone that Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov pounced on to set up his eventual winning goal. The Habs find themselves down 2-1 in the series “because of me,” said Hutson, with a faraway look.
His teammates rushed to his defence the following day. Despite his size and offensive talent, Hutson is no slouch defensively, said fellow D-man Kaiden Guhle.
Hutson is set to join the ranks of young, offensively capable defencemen like Colorado's Cale Makar and Minnesota's Quinn Hughes, Eric Andrew-Gee writes.Karl B DeBlaker/The Associated Press
“Obviously he’s not the biggest guy, and he’s not gonna put guys on their butt very often but he’s so calculated in how he defends and how he can kinda get in guys’ hip pockets. And he competes so hard, too, which I think is his biggest strength.”
Doubts about Hutson’s defensive chops and physicality have dogged the Michigan native since before he entered the league – so much so that he brought a letter from his endocrinologist to the NHL combine in 2022 to reassure teams that his bone growth was delayed relative to his age, suggesting he still had room to fill out.
Hutson plummeted to the second round of the draft that year, where Montreal was able to snag him 62nd overall, a selection that already looks like a historic steal. In his rookie season, he won the Calder Trophy with 60 assists and 66 total points while helping lead the team to a surprise playoff appearance.
Hutson stood out out even in a golden generation of offensive defenceman that includes Colorado’s Cale Makar and Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes, young players who have turned this era’s premium on speed to their advantage by becoming quarterback-like playmakers who control the action from the back.
Hutson’s game has only improved in his sophomore season, as he doubled his goal total to 12 and racked up 78 points while registering a plus-36 plus-minus rating and anchoring a dangerous power play unit.
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In the first two rounds of the playoffs, he elevated himself further, scoring 14 points in 14 games to lead the team and logging huge ice time that showed how much head coach Martin St. Louis trusts him.
That kind of performance has, of course, put a target on his back. Hutson has taken 61 hits during these playoffs – more than any other player, according to the NHL – including a dangerous shot to his knee from Carolina forward Taylor Hall late in Game 2 that left the smaller player visibly in pain.
With the bulls pawing the dust and flaring their nostrils, Hutson the matador will have to be on his guard. If the Canadiens hope to advance to the Stanley Cup final, meanwhile, he and his red cape will have to keep producing their maddening magic.