Hutson Rewarded For Historically Strong Start to NCAA Career

Montreal Canadiens prospect Lane Hutson is off to a picture-perfect start to his NCAA career.

We rated Hutson first overall in the Prospect Power Rankings, thanks to his impressive 3 goals and 5 assists in just 7 games. The accolades keep coming in at a very encouraging pace, seeing as the 18-year-old was recently named the Hockey East Rookie of the Week.

In addition, fresh off an impressive showing against UMass Lowell that saw him score both goals including the game-winning goal in overtime, he earned Hockey East Defender of the Month honours.

The awards keep rolling in for Lane Hutson, as he has just been named Hockey East Defender of the Month!https://t.co/M48a6y4wRa pic.twitter.com/dIxfB5hqXG

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) November 2, 2022

To give you an idea of how impressive Hutson’s freshman production is for an 18-year-old, we can compare his current pace to the results of some of the most highly-touted NHL defencemen that played in the NCAA at the same age.

Caveat

The comparison must be taken with a grain of salt.

There are no guarantees Hutson will maintain his current scoring pace. It would be incredibly shocking if he does manage to earn more than a point per game throughout the entirety of the season, especially once the strength of the schedule and quality of competition increases.

However, it does paint an interesting picture for the Canadiens’ second-round pick.

As it stands, Hutson is on pace to produce 38 points this season, which would place his 18-year-old NCAA season-scoring pace well ahead of players such as Cale Makar, Jake Sanderson, and Luke Hughes, all of whom were selected with the first five picks of their respective drafts.

Without the benefit of underlying numbers, it’s difficult to judge his overall progress regarding his defensive responsibility. Yet, it’s worth noting that most defencemen that go on to enjoy long careers in the NHL tend to put up a very respectable amount of offence prior to joining the league.

Therefore, we can say Hutson is well on his way to establishing a scoring pace in the NCAA that would translate nicely to the NHL.

Montreal Canadiens… you got a real nice one at 62nd overall. Lane Hutson is exceptionally small but the production and projection is immense. Dmen that have this profile in the model turn into stars 3 out of 5 times. pic.twitter.com/YBNxBoIhe4

— Byron Bader (@ByronMBader) July 8, 2022

Again, the comparison is not meant to prove Hutson will be better than the aforementioned players.

But it is starting to become clear why so many scouts ranked him as one of the defencemen with the most potential of the entire Draft.

Considering Lane Hutson, Owen Beck, Juraj Slafkovsky, Filip Mesar, Adam Engstrom and several other prospects from the 2022 Draft are already showing great promise, it’s also starting to become clear that the Montreal Canadiens prospect pool received a significant injection of much-needed talent, talent that may very well carry the franchise well into the next decade.