Canadiens' Rookie Ties Chelios Record

Tonight, Montreal Canadiens rookie Lane Hutson had a date with history and he didn't miss it.

Montreal Canadiens' rookie Lane Hutson entered tonight's game on a five-game point streak while the longest such streak for a rookie defenseman with the Tricolore stood at six. The record was first set by Glen Harmon in 1943 and then tied by Chris Chelios twice, once from March 1 to 14 and from Dec. 16 to 27 1984, almost forty years ago.

Since then, no rookie defenseman has managed to either tie or beat the record. There's been no shortage of rookie defensemen in Montreal over the last few years, but none have been offensive dynamos like Hutson. The last one who could have fit the bill was P.K. Subban, but even he didn't match Chelios' feat.

The youngster wasted no time and tied Chelios' record on the first goal of the game, getting a secondary assist on Alex Newhook's goal. 

So far this season, the Holland Michigan native has 18 points in 27 games, on pace for a 55-point season provided he plays all 82 games. While other young defensemen were made to be part of a rotation over the last few seasons like Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris, Jonathan Kovacevich and Justin Barron, nobody in their right mind would ask Hutson to skip a turn right now. Just like Kaiden Guhle really.

The 20-year-old defenseman is currently leading all rookie rearguards in points, and by a country mile as well. San Jose Sharks' Jack Thompson is a distant second with five points in 14 games tied with Philadelphia Flyers' Emil Andrae who needed 17 games to put five points up. 

Hutson is also second in scoring amongst all rookies, second only to the Flyers' Matvei Michkov who's nearly on a point per game pace with 24 points in 25 games. Dallas Stars' Logan Stankoven is hot on his tail though with 16 points in 24 games closely followed by the last draft's first overall pick Macklin Celebrini. The Sharks' prodigy only has 15 points, but he got them over 17 games thanks to injury issues. 

Can Hutson keep up the pace? It's hard to see why he couldn't, especially now that he's on the first power play unit alongside Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Patrik Laine and Juraj Slafkovsky. Two months in, Hutson is still in the Calder Trophy conversation...

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