Canadiens Analysis
Canadiens Top 10: Phenom Lane Hutson By The Numbers
Montreal Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson enjoyed one of the best rookie campaigns in league history, which means it’s time to take a look at some of the numbers powering his great season.
By the end of the year, we should be able to say Hutson easily took home the Calder Trophy, but for now, we’ll have to assume the voters will make the right choice.
Lane Hutson By The Numbers
3 – Only three defencemen in NHL history finished their rookie season with more points than Hutson (66 pts): Larry Murphy (76 pts), Brian Leetch (71 pts), and Gary Suter (68 pts).
WOW!
End-to-end beauty!!
It’s Lane Hutson’s world, we’re just living in it.
2-1 #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/kdPirGJei2
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) April 6, 2025
0 – No other defenceman in league history had more assists than Hutson (60) in their rookie year. Murphy finished with 60 assists as well, however, he was playing on a team that featured three players who earned more than 100 points, including Marcel Dionne (135 pts).
6 – Hutson finished the season tied with Victor Hedman for the sixth most points among all defencemen.
1 – With an average ice time of 22:44 in all situations, Hutson was given the most ice time for a rookie in Montreal Canadiens franchise history. P.K. Subban, the last defenceman to win the Norris Trophy for the Habs, received 22:16 in average ice time during his rookie season.
61 – Hutson was just the 62nd overall pick at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, which means 61 players were picked ahead of the record-breaking defenceman. Even the Canadiens passed on Hutson multiple times, as they had three picks prior to selecting the Michigan Native late in the second round.
2 – Even though the defenceman has only played one season, just two players from his draft class have produced more points: Juraj Slafkovsky (200 GP, 111 PTS) and Logan Cooley (157 GP, 109 PTS)
C’est 2 à 1 après 40 minutes, grâce à ce bijou de Hutson et Laine! 😗 pic.twitter.com/YaFO92S2Ju
— TVA Sports (@TVASports) April 7, 2025
3 – With 56 takeaways, Hutson ranked third among all NHL players this season (all situations). Only Jacob Slavin (61) and Cale Makar (60) provided more takeaways than Hutson (56).
2 – Only two members of the organization managed to play all 82 games while maintaining an expected goals share above 50 percent: Brendan Gallagher (52.1%) and Hutson (50.5%).
3766 – Hutson produced more points than 3766 of the 3770 rookie seasons credited to defencemen by the NHL. This means he outproduced roughly 99.9% of all rookie defencemen in league history.
5 – Hutson earned 33 points at 5v5, tied with Adam Fox and Thomas Chabot for the fifth most among blueliners in the NHL. It’s also worth pointing out he finished the year with the same number of primary assists (11) as Alex Pietrangelo and Morgan Rielly, a very disappointing result for the envious fans that desperately grasped at straws in a futile attempt to denigrate Hutson’s excellence.
All Montreal Canadiens and Lane Hutson statistics via Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com
Here’s another one…
8 – Only 8 players in the ENTIRE NHL had more assists than Hutson did this season! Kucherov, MacKinnon, McDavid, Marner, (the very under appreciated) Bratt, Eichel, Pastrnak and Makar. That’s a murderer’s row of NHL superstars right there.
Hopefully we’re doing the same exercise at this point next season for Demidov too. 😉
Only Larry Robinson had more assists in a single season with 66 assists. Chris Chelios had 58 assists, JC Tremblay and Andre Markov has 52 assists, Mike Matheson and Guy Lapointe has 51 assists Mark Streit had 49 assists. PK Subban had 45 assists Doug Harvey had 44 assists. Jean Guy Talbot had 42 assists and Serge Savard had 40 assists
If memory serves correct, the Habs only had their two first round picks (Slav and Mesar) the year they drafted Hudson. Their pick at the top of the second went to Arizona as part of the Dvorak trade.
We actually still had our pick and took Beck at #33.
It all worked out nicely, but I do find it funny when people criticize other NHL teams for ignoring Hutson in the draft, seeing as the Canadiens did it three times.
I was more surprised that Cole Hutson got passed over as long as he did after teams could see what Lane was doing and realized they had dropped the ball on him. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…
Demidov Eiserman and Hutson were the 3 picks we both liked last draft as I recall. After seeing the 2 game Lane audition, it’s hard to fathom that Cole, with a very similar style, wasn’t taken in the first round. I suspect Grier would entertain Hutson for the first overall pick this year? It’s not a crazy notion. Gives perspective on the possible value of cole Hutson. Spilled milk…
It was Demidov, Eiserman and Perekh for me, but that’s still a pretty good memory. 😁👍