Habs Daily: Hutson and Demidov Rookie(s) Of The Month, Caufield

Here are the Montreal Canadiens news items, highlights, and stories you may have missed on Wednesday.

Montreal Canadiens News

Defenceman Lane Hutson continues to produce at an elite level, and now that the team has gotten used to anticipating his penchant for finding teammates in high-danger scoring areas with perfect passes, his numbers are at risk of improving further. Which, again, is impressive because he’s already registering his name on the scoresheet more often than most veteran defencemen.

Lane Hutson of the @CanadiensMTL, who shared the rookie lead with 13 points in 14 games, has been named the NHL’s “Rookie of the Month” for December.#NHLStats: https://t.co/o3HZ7H5MIi pic.twitter.com/PNiMxZ08M2

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 1, 2025

The good news didn’t stop there, as top prospect Ivan Demidov was also given RoTM honours by the KHL. After a frustrating stretch in which his coach essentially rewarded strong play with constant reductions of ice time, Demidov is now being given the bare minimum TOI necessary to properly develop as a hockey player.

This has led to an unsurprising uptick in scoring, to the tune of four goals and two assists in six games. Of course, there’s still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to his usage.

Congrats to Ivan Demidov on being named the KHL Rookie of the Month 🔥

He scored 4G & 2A for 6P in 7GP, while only averaging 12:20 mins in December.

He was previously named the KHL Rookie of the Month back in September. pic.twitter.com/0brSE54Lwf

— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) January 1, 2025

Sniper Cole Caufield is in good company when it comes to how quickly he reached 100 goals with the Montreal Canadiens. It took him nine additional games to score 100 than one of my childhood favourites, Mats Naslund.

Starting his team’s comeback from down 2-0 en route to defeating VGK 3-2 yesterday, Cole Caufield got his 100th NHL goal in the process. With it, he became the 9th fastest player from the start of a career to reach that mark with the @CanadiensMTL franchise (and 6th fastest here) pic.twitter.com/c3a2Zt58ro

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 1, 2025

ICYMI: Jake Evans is going to receive a well-deserved raise this summer, but it’s too early to tell whether it will come from the Canadiens, or a team looking to bolster their lineup via free agency. There are legitimate arguments to be made for keeping Evans in the fold, however, the same can be said about trading him at the deadline. [Canadiens Analysis: The Jake Evans Trade and Contract Situation]

National Hockey Now Network

Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Marcus Pettersson did not have a fun New Year’s Eve. [Pittsburgh Penguins]

New Jersey Devils forward Stefan Noesen was called for a goaltender interference infraction in the second period of Wednesday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Kings.  [New Jersey Devils]

By all accounts, 2024 was a very good year for the Florida Panthers. Some, like Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen, got married. Others, such as Sergei Bobrovsky, Gus Forsling, and Jonah Gadjovich, welcomed new children into the world. [Florida Panthers]