I have to imagine the people being negative about him haven't actually been watching him play. I'm a Leafs fan, not at all a Habs fan, but I throw on random NHL games all the time while doing other stuff, have caught a number of periods of his play. He's extremely impressive, very clearly so, is shifty as f*** with the puck and cuts through opposing players in a way that you don't see often. I don't see how you could watch this 20 year old kid dance through NHL defences and be like "but he's -1 though."
Is he a finished product? Of course not. But his talent level is really high, and I feel confident he's going to be a star. For now he'll be a mix of high impact plays as well as plenty of mistakes and weaknesses, but within the next few years, I'm confident he'll be very high impact in a positive way, full stop.
He deserves the comparisons to rookie Quinn Hughes, decently similar players IMO. I'd say rookie Hughes was a bit better, but it's close. Both super skilled, smart and shifty, I think Hutson has the slight edge on hands and small area elusiveness, but rookie Hughes had a big edge on skating. Hutson is very slippery but his pure speed is just solid for his size, Hughes had the slipperiness and edgework but also truly elite speed. But overall I think he's not too far off rookie Hughes, which is a huge compliment.
Over the past 30 seasons, the only dmen to hit 50 points as a rookie have been:
- Quinn Hughes: 53 points in 68 games
- Cale Makar: 50 points in 57 games
- Moritz Seider: 50 points in 82 games
If Hutson stays healthy, plays 70+ games, I certainly wouldn't be shocked if he joins them.
