Chosen in the second round of the 2023 draft, the small American defenseman is gaining more and more confidence on the blue line and Martin St-Louis used the same for about thirty minutes last Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.
But it's a sequence of play shared via Matt Drake's X account that proves to us that despite his small size, Hutson is capable of playing big when the opportunity arises.
As you can see, the 20-year-old defenseman has his hands full with Kings forward Adrian Kempe, and we can see that Hutson is not doing too badly.
Since the start of the season, Huston is among the NHL's top rookie scorers with four assists in six games.
He is tied for points with Seamus Casey of the New Jersey Devils, a defenseman with a similar style of play and size to the Canadiens' defenseman, and a certain Matvei Michkov of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Furthermore, several experts have mentioned Lane Hutson's name to win the Calder Trophy awarded to the most outstanding rookie in the regular season.
And let's just say that it's about time a Canadiens player got his hands on this title because the last time a Habs player won the Calder Trophy, it was goaltender Ken Dryden in the 1971-72 season.
POLL | ||
Will Lane Hutson get his hands on the Calder Trophy at the end of the season? | ||
Yes | 88 | 67.7 % |
No | 42 | 32.3 % |
List of polls |