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Top 5 Things We’ve Learned From Lane Hutson’s NHL Start

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9 months ago

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montreal canadiens lane hutson (test No 2)

With six points in five games, Montreal Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson is off to an excellent start to his NHL career. We’re not dealing with a gigantic sample size yet, but we have just enough information available to get an early look at the impact Hutson can make in the lineup.

Martin St-Louis Clearly Trusts Lane Hutson Beyond His Years

Even though fans have been clamouring for more ice time in Hutson’s case, it’s only fair to say head coach Martin St-Louis has been quite aggressive when it comes to using his prized rookie.

Through three games, only Kaiden Guhle (16:42  avg. TOI) has been used with more regularity than Hutson (15:34 avg. TOI) in 5v5 situations. St-Louis has also leaned heavily on Hutson in powerplay situations. As it stands, Hutson is among the 15 busiest players in the NHL on the man-advantage, playing almost four minutes per game on the powerplay. As for Mike Matheson, the player many want to see removed from the first powerplay unit in favour of Hutson, he’s sitting at third in the NHL with an average ice time of 5:35 per game on the man advantage.

MUST READ: Montreal Canadiens Prospect Rankings – No.1. Lane Hutson The Phenom

I understand why everyone wants to feed Hutson as much ice time as possible, but we also have to remember this is a transition year for the young blueliner. It takes a few years for a player’s body to get used to the travel and the higher number of games involved in playing NHL hockey.

Hutson will end up being the busiest player on this team, both on the powerplay and at 5v5, but it will take him a little time to adjust to the professional hockey schedule from a physiological standpoint, and St-Louis is already giving him an abundance of ice time, which is the reason he’s not pushing Hutson to the absolute limit from the very get-go.

Yes, Hutson is an excellent player, but this is just the start of the beginning of his professional career. He participated in a lot of practices while in the NCAA, but he’s new to the idea of playing 82 games per year.


Lane Hutson’s Style Of Play Translates Perfectly To The Professional Level

I’m not discussing how his style of play confounds NHL players, though it’s certainly true. For years, we heard some suggest Hutson would never be able to walk the line in the NHL, or produce assists as if he was a modern-day Adam Oates on the blue line, but much like every other contrived criticism he has faced, it quickly faded as he took the next step in his career.

The real advantage to having Hutson in the NHL is that he has NHL-calibre teammates. That’s not to say the Boston University Terriers were a bad team, far from it. But if you watched him in action last year, you’ll have noted things clicked very well with elite prospect Macklin Celebrini, while other teammates didn’t necessarily take advantage of the endless stream of opportunities created when Hutson was on the ice. Now that he’s playing with NHL players, that same type of chemistry is coming to the forefront, and it’s happening with players who aren’t necessarily considered elite. To be more accurate, every player is a little better when Hutson is on the ice.

This connotes Hutson was playing NHL-calibre hockey for a while prior to making his debut, much to the dismay of those who suggested he would struggle in the best hockey league in the world.

Lane Hutson’s Size Is Not An Issue

Let’s face it, the only reason Hutson fell to 62nd overall in his draft season was because of his diminutive size. And while the Canadiens deserve credit for making the right decision, they too ignored Hutson on three occasions before finally drafting him. This means every single NHL team had an opportunity to land Hutson, but opted to ignore his excellent statistics and his obvious strong points in favour of lesser players who were tall enough to ride rollercoasters since they’ve been about 12 years old.

Hutson will eventually get caught on the ice, and when it happens, the optics won’t be ideal, but there’s a good reason he’s yet to get blown up by a big hit, despite the fact that he carries the puck more often than any other Canadiens player.

His size, combined with his agility, his intelligence, and his anticipation makes him a very difficult target when attempting to land a hit.

Lane Hutson Epitomizes Entertainment

Okay, this one is a layup, as Hutson was already among the most entertaining hockey players before he made his NHL debut, but you’d be hard-pressed to argue he hasn’t brought the same level of entertainment to the mix now that he’s playing at the Bell Centre.

Not only did he drive Brady Tkachuk up the wall with his quick hands, he also managed to fake out the camera operator on Saturday night, a testament to how effectively he uses deception to open up ice, and consequently, shooting and passing lanes.

Lane Hutson’s Early Statistics Are Excellent

Hutson already leads all defencemen in expected goal share (xGF%) by a pretty wide margin. But we knew Hutson was overflowing with talent, so his individual results aren’t exactly jaw-dropping. They probably should be, but due to his excellent play at all levels, the bar has been set ridiculously high.

There’s a narrative in place that suggests Hutson is a poor defensive player, but it isn’t born from reality. Hutson keeps the puck 200 feet away from his goaltender most nights. More than anything, that’s lazy analysis from people who don’t understand the value of puck-moving defencemen. I’ve watched almost every game that featured Hutson since the Canadiens drafted him, and I feel confident saying he made up for mistakes from his teammates way more often than he put them in a difficult position due to his offensive prowess.

To get a better idea of how good he’s been in the NHL, we can simply take a look at how the first line has played, with and without Hutson on the ice. The first line has scored a fair amount of goals to start the season, though much of that has come on the heels of Cole Caufield finding his scoring rhythm. Statistically speaking, the top line has had a very hard time establishing the same type of solid underlying numbers as they had last season.

Without Hutson on the ice with the first line, it has only controlled 23.5 percent of the shots (CF%), and 16.4 percent of the expected goals (xGF%).

With Hutson on the ice with the first line, it has controlled 50 percent of the shots, and 42.5 percent of the high-danger chances. In other words, the player with the least professional experience in the lineup has made the greatest impact on the team’s best players.

Those numbers will fluctuate once we have a larger sample size, but suffice it to say, from the eye test to the statistics, and everything in between, Lane Hutson is enjoying a fantastic start to his NHL career.

All Lane Hutson statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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