Calder Watch : 2024-25 Season
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Artaud
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- Jul 21, 2012
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There are more stats to defending than shots blocked and hits. Hutson's defense is all about stick work and takeaways. He's currently tied for 3rd in the league in takeaways. The only defensemen ahead of him are Jacob Slavin and Cale Makar, both of whom are all-world players defensively.
You can't evaluate him with the usual lens. There are things he will never do and what makes him exceptional is how he's built his game around those limitations. It may not be the way coaches teach it, but his defensive play is effective.
The cool thing is that we'll see how that playstyle fares in the dreaded playoff environment as soon as this season.
You can't evaluate him with the usual lens. There are things he will never do and what makes him exceptional is how he's built his game around those limitations. It may not be the way coaches teach it, but his defensive play is effective.
The cool thing is that we'll see how that playstyle fares in the dreaded playoff environment as soon as this season.
The Gr8 Dane
L'harceleur
Celebrini has more giveaways than him in less games, playing less minutes.
Notable D with more giveaways than Hutson:
Carlo, Andersson, Faber, Pietrangelo, Hanifin, Hedman, McDonagh, Carlsson, Makar, Werenski, Provorov, Sergachev, Harley, Bouchard, Karlsson, Weegar, and many more.
Notable D with more defensive zone giveaways than Hutson:
Whitecloud, Dobson, Theodore, Dunn, Andersson, Montour, Orlov, Tanev, D. Hamilton, Q. Hughes, S. Jones, Trouba, Faber, Werenski, Dahlin, Reilly, Sanderson, Hedman, Skjei, McDonagh, Carlsson, Pietrangelo, Karlsson, Bouchard, Makar, Hanifin, Sergachev, Carlo, Harley, Weegar, and many more.
You’ll find that defensemen, especially ones that have the puck a lot, will have a higher amount of giveaways, especially in the defensive zone. Hutson gives the puck away at a remarkably low rate, including in the defensive zone, considering how much he has the puck and the kinds of plays he makes on a nightly basis.
Celebrini has just 12 less defensive zone giveaways than Hutson, despite being a forward, and is one of the worst offenders in this category among forwards.
Also, Hutson’s tk-gv differential is among the best in the league, especially for defensemen, better than guys like Makar, Werenski, Weegar, Carlsson, Dahlin, Dobson, Hanifin, Sergachev, Andersson, Faber, Q. Hughes, Morrissey, and many more.
He’s comparable in this category to guys like Slavin, Forsling, McAvoy, Heiskanen, Larsson, Eckholm, D. Toews, Fox, Sanderson, and Vlasic. Notice anything about these guys? All this, despite playing a much more dynamic offensive game than all of them except maybe Fox.
Oh, and he’s better than Celebrini in this area by an absolute landslide
He has 120 blocked shots. That’s more than guys like Reilly, Dobson, Spurgeon, Morrissey, Harley, Power, Faber, Hanifin, Suter, S. Jones, Fox, D. Toews, Kovacevic, Dahlin, Montour, Josi, Eckholm, Forsling, Heiskanen, D. Hamilton, McAvoy, Theodore, Dunn, Q. Hughes, Ekblad, Orlov, and many more.
He has more hits than Celebrini. And he has more hits than many notable D, like Sanderson, Fox, Hedman (lmao), Faber, Andersson, Harley, Bouchard, Power, Brodin, Pesce, McDonagh, Slavin, Reilly, Heiskanen, Q. Hughes, and many more.
How about you quit the lying? Since I know you are just going to try to ignore this post, I want you to answer for your blatant BS. What do you have to say about all this?
Sasha Orlov
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Ezpz
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JeffreyLFC
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Only secondary assists though not to mention that he also has been carried by the amazing players that play for the Canadiens.
Although smart Sharks fans have already granted Lane is playing a better season of hockey, I'll try and make the argument again, as I think the case is rather straightforward.
On Performance Alone
Lane is comfortably ahead if you look at every advanced statistical model I know of. See previous posts in this thread on that point. Here's from a Dom article as recent as yesterday:"Folks, the Calder is a wrap. How do you vote for anyone but Lane Hutson?
The Montreal superstar continues to climb the ranks and has been an absolute beast. Since 4 Nations, Hutson has an average Game Score of 2.05 — the highest mark in the league. That surge has put Hutson’s Net Rating at plus-12.8 for the year, the 10th-best mark among all defensemen. Hutson’s play of late has put his rookie season in the same stratosphere as Cale Makar’s; he’s been that good.
[...]
Hutson is top 10 in defenseman Net Rating for the season, but he obviously looks even better since Nov. 26. That was his first game away from Savard and his first game taking over the top power play. Here are the defensemen Net Rating ranks since:
- Cale Makar: +18.4
- Zach Werenski: +16.2
- Lane Hutson: +13.6
Historical Precedent / Potential
If you want to go beyond performance and look at potential, you can use DobberHockey's PNHLe model which takes age into account to estimate peak point potential. Celebrini's is at a whopping 106. A superstar rate, and if you believe he'll add strong defensive play to that, you have an absolute monster on your hands. If the calder were awarded on perceived potential, it would vastly improve Celebrini's case for the trophy.
An interesting caveat:
I think if both players live up to general expectations, Celebrini is the more valuable asset. That said, given his performance this season, the same PNHLe model predicts Lane Hutson's peak point potential is an eye-watering 118.
Before Habs fans fall to their knees: keep in mind it's much more likely the PNHLe model's has flaws than that Hutson has none.
Sasha Orlov
Lord of the Manor
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EK65 didn’t have a defensive game
Well, if we base careers off future predictions, why not just rename the Norrs the Hutson since everyone's predictions always come true.
That's not true, but this argument has been going on ad nauseam for a decade now.
Yeah, that’s usually how it goes when things don’t go the way you want them to lol
Maybe for ONE season in Ottawa, the one where they went to the ECF. After that year, he put essentially zero effort or focus into the defensive side of the game. Before that year, he was a mixed bag defensively, but mostly not good. And his 100 point season was an absolute joke from a defensive standpoint.
His defense no doubt has gotten worse, however the way Hutson is described defensively reminds me of how EK65 was and continued to be described. Limited in the defensive zone from doing things because of size, but compensates with good stickwork, takeaways and a quick transition game to get the puck out of the zone effectively.
CrashOut
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- Apr 1, 2025
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You are so clueless lmao.
Dude said Matheson. I cant.
Hutson and Suzuki carried the Habs. Nobody else
Stop the non sense of hungry improving Habs. Everyone, including you i guess, had the Habs bottom 5 in the NHL right there with SJ.
This is both needlessly snarky and seemingly completely unrelated to the content of my reply. I even said based on general expectations I expect Celebrini to be the better player.
The only people who predicted Montreal would be near SJ in the standings are Toronto fans and Canadians haters in general. No one objectively thought that.
EK was certainly capable of playing a similar type of defensive game; he just pretty much never did apart from the one year. The 2017 run to double OT of game 7 in the ECF was his magnum opus defensively. The difference is effort and interest in the defensive side. For EK, it fell off a cliff after that year, and it was sporadic in the years leading up to that. His first few years in the league were legitimately terrible from a defensive standpoint, probably just as bad as he has been since 2017, except it was due to inexperience and development, rather than effort/interest (and age/injuries) like it is now. Another thing is I think Hutson is grittier, more tenacious, and more aggressive defensively than EK ever was.
The "hope" was that the Habs would be near the 10th worst team (up 5 from the year previous). The fact that they are about to make the playoffs.... It was only possible because of Lane Hutson. Without Lane, the Habs don't make the playoffs. And that's not taking anything away from Suzuki and the rest of the core.
Lane Hutson's play is a key reason why the Habs exceeded expectations.
Artaud
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- Jul 21, 2012
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There's similarities there for sure, but it took Karlsson a while to develop this playstyle and he did not keep it up very long. Karlsson also never had the same physical limitations that force Hutson to play this way.
I'm not saying he's without flaws, I just think Hutson's defensive game, like everything he does, defies expectations. He's one of the most fascinating players in the league.
CanadienShark
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- Dec 18, 2012
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It's been a good year to be me.
...most of the "talking Heads" had the Habs in the Bottom 10, quite a few in the Bottom 5 & around last in the East...
JustAHabFan
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- Apr 8, 2008
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Supporting cast? Are you kidding me? The Habs is pretty much the same team as last year. Laine is added, but he mostly helped on the PP. Dach was missing most of the season because of injury. Last year, the Habs ranked 5th behind teams like the Coyotes, the Sabres, the Flyers, the Flames, etc. All the teams I mentioned above missed the playoff this year while the Habs will make it.This is all happened because of Hutson and Suzuki. Celebrini, Mitchkov, Wolf failed to bring their Ateam to the playoff while Hutson can. This alone should make Hutson win the Calder. It's not all about points. It's about making your team much better than it should be.
JIMVINNY
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