Rookie Hutson taking NHL by storm, has Canadiens on verge of playoff spot

MONTREAL -- This much is guaranteed about Lane Hutson: Should the Montreal Canadiens qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the rookie defenseman won’t have the best postseason beard on his team.

Impossibly youthful in appearance and remarkably poised throughout his maiden season, Hutson has been a revelation in Montreal and throughout the NHL.

The 21-year-old Michigan-born, Chicago-raised phenom is a serious candidate for the Calder Trophy that annually is voted to the League’s best rookie; in the view of some, he’s the only choice for the award.

Hutson has set this hockey-mad market ablaze with his speed, intelligence, decision-making and studious absorption of all he’s being taught, qualities that soon might be bathed in the white-hot spotlight of the playoffs.

Lane Hutson in the Montreal Canadiens’ Bell Centre dressing room before the team’s game on Feb. 9, 2025.

He’ll play for a grand audience on Monday when the Canadiens are home to the Blackhawks in the 81st game for each team (7 p.m. ET, Prime, RDS, CHSN). It will be their third chance to clinch the second wild card in the Eastern Conference; any combination of two points in their final two games would do it.

“We’ve kind of been through it all,” Hutson said last Thursday, the Canadiens headed to games in Ottawa and Toronto. “It’s been a long season of ups and downs but the atmosphere has always been high and our fans have been great. They’ve stuck with us through the lows and they’re with us now in the highs.”

Hutson has enjoyed a rookie season that probably even he never envisioned. He leads all rookies with 64 points, assists with 58, and power-play points and assists with 25 and 24.

He has two games left to break a 40-year-old Canadiens rookie record, his 64 points tied with the 1984-85 total of fellow defenseman and Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios.

Lane Hutson skates with the puck at Bell Centre on April 5, 2025; Canadiens defenseman Chris Chelios during a late 1980s game.

This season, Hutson was named the NHL rookie of the month for December and March.

Through it all, he has played with the poise of a seasoned veteran, the best power-play blue line quarterback in this city since the days of the silky Andrei Markov.

Very quickly, Montreal fell in love with Hutson, and the adoration is mutual.

“Honestly, this city has surpassed my expectations,” he said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, I guess. I’ve been to lot of Blackhawks games, I’ve been in that atmosphere when they were winning their Stanley Cups (in 2013 and 2015). But I think here it’s just another level.”

Lane Hutson shakes hands with Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis after Hutson was selected by the Canadiens during the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bell Centre on July 8, 2022.

Almost immediately, Hutson had the confidence of Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis.

“I think early on he showed me how competitive he was on both sides of the puck,” said St. Louis, the 2004 Stanley Cup, Hart Trophy and Art Ross Trophy winner with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“You have to be careful in overcoaching these players because they’re so dynamic. They can change a game quick. For me, in the early stage with Lane, it was making him understand that it’s not a 1-on-1 game but that there will be 1-on-1 moments. Also, that he has to manage his risk.

“To me I feel that he’s improved tremendously. If you talk to Lane about anything, it doesn’t take long for him to recognize and apply whatever you want. It’s instant.”

Risk management is important to St. Louis, for the sake of the individual and the team, especially with the younger players on his roster.

A Lane Hutson jersey and T-shirt hang at Tricolore Sports at Montreal’s Bell Centre on April 10, 2025, both items popular items among Canadiens fans.

“I feel the young players have to know they’re going to have some breathing room so I can actually figure out whether (the things they do are) tendencies or not,” he said. “I feel that early in the season, there was time when Lane wasn’t managing his risk the way he should, but (I was) totally understanding that with a young player like that, he’s never had to manage his risk his whole life, probably.

“But at this level, you can get exposed if you take too much risk. Not just yourself, but you expose the team. I think he's improved tremendously in that department, I’m not worried.”

Hutson is a vital part of a rebuilding project that is paying dividends for the Canadiens, brighter days almost surely ahead.

Montreal chose Hutson in the second round of the 2002 NHL Draft (No. 62), the teenager shaking hands on the floor of Montreal’s Bell Centre with St. Louis. It was just the first time he would make headlines in the arena.

Lane Hutson poses for a portrait after being selected by the Montreal Canadiens during the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bell Centre on July 8, 2022.

The Montreal Gazette suggested the following day that other drafting teams sidestepped Hutson because of his size -- listed then at 5-foot-8, 158 pounds -- and what it said was his “suspect skating.”

“It will take a few years to determine whether Hutson is the steal of the draft or a wasted draft pick,” the paper reported.

In no time at all, it was clear that Hutson had been a spectacular heist.

Ranked 25th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting heading into the draft, the Canadiens were bullish on the player they had seen on the U.S. National Development Team. Nick Bobrov, the Canadiens’ co-director of amateur scouting, said after the draft that Hutson was expected to be off the board by the time Montreal made its choice.

Lane Hutson skates with the Boston University Terriers at Agganis Arena on Nov. 23, 2022, in Boston.

“This kid has a big brain,” Bobrov later said. “His hockey sense is very interesting. He has a chip on his shoulder that is very real. The size does not deter him and when you need him, I think you get a sense and a flavor for what’s inside.

“What he does on the ice, often times it’s highlight reels, it’s power play, it’s thinking, finding seams, finding plays, lanes. So you have to go after these types of defensemen because they’re hard to find. We have big hopes for him.”

Hutson would spend two years at Boston University, along the way helping the U.S. win bronze and gold at the 2023 and 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Listed as an inch taller and four pounds heavier than he was at the draft, Hutson made his NHL debut in back-to-back games against the Detroit Red Wings on April 15 and 16, 2024, and looked entirely at ease, assisting on a goal in both games, skating 21:54 in his first game in Detroit, then 23:32 the next night in Montreal.

The defenseman’s welcome-to-the-NHL moment was playing against Detroit’s Patrick Kane, whom he loved to watch when the forward starred with the Blackhawks.

“I’ve been a big fan of Patrick’s for so long,” Hutson said. “Definitely that moment.”

He arrived full time with the Canadiens this season, his good-natured first-goal watch stretching 31 games into the schedule before the milestone finally came against the Jets in Winnipeg on Dec. 14. Hutson had back-to-back three-assist games against the Florida Panthers on March 30 and April 1, his fan club by then including at least three NHL Hall of Fame defensemen.

“He’s got ice in his veins, I’ll tell you that much,” said Larry Robinson, a two-time Norris Trophy winner as the League’s best defenseman and six-time Stanley Cup champion with the Canadiens.

Lane Hutson warms up before the game against the Minnesota Wild at Bell Centre on Jan. 30, 2025.

“Everybody thought that he’s not big enough, that he can’t defend. But he’s so smart. He gets good body position on somebody who’s bigger than him. The stuff that he does with the puck on the blue line, especially the power play, it’s simply incredible. He sees the ice well, good passes. He’s like a little water bug out there.”

Serge Savard, with Robinson and Guy Lapointe a member of the Canadiens’ vaunted “Big Three” of the 1970s, won the Stanley Cup eight times with Montreal, then added another as general manager of the 1993 champions.

“We’re probably spending a lot less time in our own zone because of Hutson,” Savard said during the Canadiens’ 5-4 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche on March 22, Hutson plus-2 while playing a team-high 28:51.

“He’s probably our best player right now. Look at how good he is with the puck, look at the power play, he’s in full control of the puck, he's not nervous. We haven’t had a player with talent like his in a long time. He does a lot of good things on the ice that not many guys do. He’s an All-Star already, and I think he should win the Calder Trophy. He’s something special.”

Lane Hutson salutes Bell Centre fans after being named second star for the Canadiens game against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on April 5, 2025.

On French-language RDS television a week ago, five-time Norris Trophy winner Ray Bourque was effusive in his praise.

“I don't think the Canadiens would make the playoffs this season without Hutson. The difference he’s made for the Habs this year is incredible,” Bourque said. “I’ve never seen anyone move the puck like he does, with his little moves. I was worried about him at first, but he’s incredible. He’s going to win the Calder this year.”

Bourque said there was little advice he could offer a young player whose toolbox is almost overflowing.

“Maybe ‘never be satisfied. Whatever you did today, do it better tomorrow,’” he said. “That’s how I approached my game. I’m not worried about him. He’s a player who won’t be satisfied with his success.

Lane Hutson enters Delta Center prior to a game against the Utah Hockey Club on January 14, 2025, in Salt Lake City.

“At every level he's played -- before college, at Boston University, in Montreal -- from the beginning of the season to the end, he’s at his best. I don’t think there’s much advice to give him. Montreal is very lucky to have him.”

Through it all, Hutson has flashed his boyish grin and enjoyed the ride through his superb first season. He admits that he has no idea about the electricity that would crackle in Montreal should the team make the playoffs, the Canadiens aiming to return to the postseason for the first time since 2021, to a packed playoff Bell Centre for the first time since pre-pandemic 2017 – when Hutson was 13.

“We’ll see,” he said. “I don’t think there are a lot of guys who know what it’s like. It would be all new to us. We have a job to do and everyone is just comfortable being themselves.

“It’s all been pure excitement so far but I think we’re all not satisfied. We want more.”

Top photo: Lane Hutson rushes the puck at Montreal’s Bell Centre on April 5, 2025.