If Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes gave his team a boost for the playoffs race by extending Jake Evans, the playoffs are not the only objective in sight for one member of the team. Like captain Nick Suzuki, rookie Lane Hutson has been on fire of late, with five assists in his last three games.
He’s been right in the thick of the rookie scoring race for quite some time, and he still leads it with 48 points, while his two biggest rivals, San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini and Philadelphia Flyers’ Matvei Michkov, have 45 points each. Of his 48 points, 44 are assists, and some will tell you they are primarily secondary assists, but those people may not have watched him play often.
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An ace of the transition game, the 21-year-old often launches the attack from his own zone. While that gives him a secondary assist when his team scores off the rush, it takes tremendous vision and skills to do that.
NHL Network hockey analyst Mike Kelly also posted some interesting stats on Wednesday. Hutson’s 44 assists are the second-highest total amongst all defensemen in the NHL. Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, and Cale Makar are in a three-way tie at the top. That’s already impressive on its own. Still, Hutson also leads all blueliners in slot pass completions and is third in offensive zone puck possession behind Hughes and Makar.
Some also point to Celebrini’s age as a factor in the Calder Trophy race, mentioning his accomplishments are more impressive because he’s so young at 18, but that shouldn’t be a factor. Age only comes into account in the Calder Trophy conversation to determine eligibility. To be considered for the honour, a player must be 26 years old or younger on September 15 of their rookie season. This rule was added after 31-year-old Sergei Makarov won the award in 1991, and there were some further rumblings when Artemi Panarin won it at 24, but the rules weren’t amended.
If age were to come into the equation, then the fact that Hutson is of more diminutive stature might as well be considered. Sounds silly, right? So does the age factor. A rookie is a rookie as long as he meets the age criterion, and Huston is nowhere near 26; he only just turned 21 on Feb. 14.
Hutson is climbing up the rankings in the NHL rookie history book. He’s currently in 10th place for most assists by a rookie defenseman. Larry Murphy has the record with 60, and former Canadiens defenseman Chris Chelios is second with 55. As things stand, Hutson is on pace for 59, and it must be remembered that he wasn’t on the first power-play unit at the start of the season.
The season Hutson is having right now is impressive compared to his fellow rookies and the best of all time. Quinn Hughes had 45 assists and 53 points when he came second behind Cale Makar in Calder Trophy voting in 2019-2020. Granted, he got those in 68 games and not 82, but it’s far from impossible that Hutson would have tied him before playing his 68th game of the season.
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