I knew about Makar and Hughes. I disagreed with both moves.
Colorado didn't burn a year on Makar either and played his entire ELC.
Listen, you can yap all you want, Hutson isn't Makar and isn't Hughes. He's not in the same situation as they were. Hughes signed after playing 2 seasons, same as Makar. They were also both signed in a flat cap, where the expected cap growth was forestalled a couple years down the road.
Montreal is not a UFA attraction. Their bread and butter is to retain their own players. Hughes signed Caufield 8 years as soon as he could. Same with Suzuki, same with Slaf. That's how Hughes operates, which is imconsequential of other players from other teams. Many RFAs have signed 8 year deals, even though you would like to pretend that players operate with the 6 year mindset, which is far from reality.
You don't analyse this from the player's position, you do it with the narrow minded approach which is seen from you flip flopping between saying (sic) "there's no value for either" and then being shown the value for one side, you flip this to "oh you only see it from the team's pov".
Guess what, I see it from Hutson's pov too. He's small, he's frail and he could get forsberged any game. Habs already negociated with him for his ELC. They told him they'd burn a year on it so he could sign the big bucks earlier. There's a just return expected here, and signing max term is part of that.
