Player Discussion Lane Hutson Part 2

[Goalfield13]

People keep comparing Hutson to Caufield. One is a winger and the other a D. One has few defensive responsibilities (and still needs to be insulated) while the other has all the responsibilities. Small wingers are fine. Small Cs and Ds are a different story.

Also, someone mentioned Spurgeon. That's a good comparison. I just took a look at his games played, and he typically played 60ish games each season. Gee, I wonder why.

 

[Habs4Life]

This can be said for a lot of players though. I don't think we'll see the rover style he has in the NHL but he's still highly skilled. And he's smart too, he'll adjust.

I hope so, only time will tell

 

[habsterr]

Habs need to get bigger with forwards, tired of the stereotype tiny habs getting destroyed in the playoffs. Hutson is unique by having elite hockey IQ and a tiny stature, he will need to be paired with a guy like Ghule or Savard. I see Hutson becoming a #2/3 defensmen in the NHL.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Yep. One thing is for sure, the Habs would never make the cup finals with Caufield in their top 6, and they certainly wouldn't beat big heavy teams like Winnipeg and Vegas en route to that cup finals.

It's like people's memory suddenly went blank. If there's one thing we learned about the bubble playoffs and the 2021 cup run is that guys like Suzuki and Caufield step their game up when it matters.

The Habs do indeed need to get bigger. They need to find the kinds of players who match size with skill. But saying all that, Hutson is arguably the Habs' best prospect. Why are people worried about him?

He went from "Oh shit! Steal of the draft" when he was selected to "Hot damn! This kid is unreal" during and after his freshman year to "Lane's the best and most trusted D on USA" at the WJC to all of a sudden "He's too small, he's not ready."

What the hell happened along the way that has many concerned?

 

[Adam Michaels]

Habs need to get bigger with forwards, tired of the stereotype tiny habs getting destroyed in the playoffs. Hutson is unique by having elite hockey IQ and a tiny stature, he will need to be paired with a guy like Ghule or Savard. I see Hutson becoming a #2/3 defensmen in the NHL.

Exactly. As I pointed out in a post above, the Habs have a bunch of big bodies on the back end. Their smallest D is Harris, who is listed at 5'11" and 190 lbs. He's the only one under 6-feet. They'll be fine with having one D at Hutson's size.

 

[YukonCornelius 5thOA]

What the hell happened along the way that has many concerned?

There's a faction of this board getting out of control that this quote applies to, "When you little scamps get together, you're worse than a sewing circle.".

 

[WeThreeKings]

It's like people's memory suddenly went blank. If there's one thing we learned about the bubble playoffs and the 2021 cup run is that guys like Suzuki and Caufield step their game up when it matters.

The Habs do indeed need to get bigger. They need to find the kinds of players who match size with skill. But saying all that, Hutson is arguably the Habs' best prospect. Why are people worried about him?

He went from "Oh shit! Steal of the draft" when he was selected to "Hot damn! This kid is unreal" during and after his freshman year to "Lane's the best and most trusted D on USA" at the WJC to all of a sudden "He's too small, he's not ready."

What the hell happened along the way that has many concerned?

There's definitely some type of brain farts going on where a lot of posters refuse to acknowledge what happened prior to the first tank year. Caufield actually scored most of his goals against Vegas.

Of course the Habs need to get bigger but they also need to get more skilled. I don't see another small defenseman, or perimeter/soft defenseman in our line-up except for maybe Engstrom if he makes it or Konyushkov. Hutson will be well insulated.

My take on this is a few different things.

1. People are scarred from the Bergevin regime where every highly touted prospect busted and Bergevin didn't trade them before they busted to add to a team that could have done damage if they added more scoring up front. The differences now is that the development team is much different and we are not currently in a cup contending window. I've seen posters mention trading Kidney and Mesar already. Why the hell would we be trading those prospects when one hasn't even debuted in the AHL and the other is in year 1 and is a long term project? More-over, what would we hope to gain from trading them? So that type of thinking is going over into Hutson, a "we can't have nice things" line of thinking where it's the Habs and he will bust so move him now.

2. A lot of the board is more obsessed with being right than anything else. We saw it drag on with Slafkovsky and we'll see it on many other prospects like Reinbacher and Mesar. The thing with that position is that it is easy to be right as most prospects do bust or don't live up to expectations and the only thing you need to do if they don't bust is say "I just wanted what was best for the team, I'm happy to be wrong, I was never all that serious" and hope it goes into background.. but when you're right, you can pound your chest and declare yourself an elite talent evaluator.

 

[salbutera]

Folks might want to temper down expectations for Lane Hutson. While his skills are off the charts along with his hockey IQ the fact remains is that he is pint sized and possesses average skating. I hope for the best.

Hutson can be a PP specialist on Habs right now, and suspect he’ll start off by manning both PP units as a way to build up TOI, while managing his 5-on-5 TOI

 

[Redux91]

There's a faction of this board getting out of control that this quote applies to, "When you little scamps get together, you're worse than a sewing circle.".

 

[Sam de Mtl]

It's like people's memory suddenly went blank. If there's one thing we learned about the bubble playoffs and the 2021 cup run is that guys like Suzuki and Caufield step their game up when it matters.

The Habs do indeed need to get bigger. They need to find the kinds of players who match size with skill. But saying all that, Hutson is arguably the Habs' best prospect. Why are people worried about him?

He went from "Oh shit! Steal of the draft" when he was selected to "Hot damn! This kid is unreal" during and after his freshman year to "Lane's the best and most trusted D on USA" at the WJC to all of a sudden "He's too small, he's not ready."

What the hell happened along the way that has many concerned?

Group think is a funny thing.

A few months ago, there was only a handful of posters pumping the brakes on the enthusiasm about Hutson. I was one of them. Not because I don't believe in him, but because the discourse was way overboard and he still has hurdles to get through. We were jumped for being haters.

Now, all of a sudden, without displaying any negative changes to his game, people are overly worried with his size and how ineffective he will be. I now find myself on the other side of the debate trying to still say the same thing: "he has issues he needs to iron out, but there is definitely a path for him to become an NHLer and a really good one. Wait and see." I may get jumped for wearing rose colored glasses soon.

Now I know, or hope, that the vocal fans now are not the same vocal ones from earlier, but it is a really funny phenomenon to observe to see the swing of group think ideas.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Group think is a funny thing.

A few months ago, there was only a handful of posters pumping the brakes on the enthusiasm about Hutson. I was one of them. Not because I don't believe in him, but because the discourse was way overboard and he still has hurdles to get through. We were jumped for being haters.

Now, all of a sudden, without displaying any negative changes to his game, people are overly worried with his size and how ineffective he will be. I now find myself on the other side of the debate trying to still say the same thing: "he has issues he needs to iron out, but there is definitely a path for him to become an NHLer and a really good one. Wait and see." I may get jumped for wearing rose colored glasses soon.

Now I know, or hope, that the vocal fans now are not the same vocal ones from earlier, but it is a really funny phenomenon to observe to see the swing of group think ideas.

It's more than fine for fans to be unsure or preferring to temper their expectations. I have no issue with any of that. I disagree with them, but I don't hold it against anyone for having that opinion.

What perplexes me is that suddenly, now that we know he's about to turn pro, they say he's not ready, he's too small, he will get crushed when before, that wasn't as much as issue.

He has things to work on and improve. But that makes me believe even more that he belongs in the NHL or AHL, where the Canadiens development team can get on the ice and work directly with him.

 

[Tyson]

Over the past 20 years or so the Habs have had a reputation of being a small team yet many fans think moving forward that this isn't an issue. If you truly want to win a Cup some day you better address the fact that you have to be bigger. Smallish players can get you to the playoffs but rarely will they get you through the playoffs unless the team has significant size and skill throughout their line up that can off set one or two small players.

 

[Rapala]

It's like people's memory suddenly went blank. If there's one thing we learned about the bubble playoffs and the 2021 cup run is that guys like Suzuki and Caufield step their game up when it matters.

The Habs do indeed need to get bigger. They need to find the kinds of players who match size with skill. But saying all that, Hutson is arguably the Habs' best prospect. Why are people worried about him?

He went from "Oh shit! Steal of the draft" when he was selected to "Hot damn! This kid is unreal" during and after his freshman year to "Lane's the best and most trusted D on USA" at the WJC to all of a sudden "He's too small, he's not ready."

What the hell happened along the way that has many concerned?

Nerves.

It's getting closer to crunch time.

 

[OldCraig71]

I haven't followed Hutson that much outside of the World juniors and a few games of college hockey this season and I am interested in seeing what he looks like against AHL and NHL competition.

 

[Rapala]

Over the past 20 years or so the Habs have had a reputation of being a small team yet many fans think moving forward that this isn't an issue. If you truly want to win a Cup some day you better address the fact that you have to be bigger. Smallish players can get you to the playoffs but rarely will they get you through the playoffs unless the team has significant size and skill throughout their line up that can off set one or two small players.

For me hockey being what it is you absolutely have to have a robust Size Speed Skill Toughness (Team) quotient .
Not only to go through the 82 game schedule but to win 16 games in May/June.
Small players aren't an issue too many of them are.

 

[Sam de Mtl]

For me hockey being what it is you absolutely have to have a robust Size Speed Skill Toughness (Team) quotient .
Not only go through the 82 game schedule but to win 16 games in May/June.
Small players aren't an issue too many of them is.

Yep. People obsess over size, but it's all of these things. Tons of big teams have lost because of a lack of speed or skill. If winning a cup was that simple, more teams would do it.

We have better chance to win with a good cocktail. Lane checks some boxes. It's up to him to do enough to get a regular spot and to succeed.

 

[Toene]

It's like people's memory suddenly went blank. If there's one thing we learned about the bubble playoffs and the 2021 cup run is that guys like Suzuki and Caufield step their game up when it matters.

The Habs do indeed need to get bigger. They need to find the kinds of players who match size with skill. But saying all that, Hutson is arguably the Habs' best prospect. Why are people worried about him?

He went from "Oh shit! Steal of the draft" when he was selected to "Hot damn! This kid is unreal" during and after his freshman year to "Lane's the best and most trusted D on USA" at the WJC to all of a sudden "He's too small, he's not ready."

What the hell happened along the way that has many concerned?

Excellent post. We also have a DIRECT proof that Hutson can play against men in a competitive environment. Not even a year ago he went to the Men's World Championship and played very well for a player his age.

 

[Rapala]

Yep. People obsess over size, but it's all of these things. Tons of big teams have lost because of a lack of speed or skill. If winning a cup was that simple, more teams would do it.

We have better chance to win with a good cocktail. Lane checks some boxes. It's up to him to do enough to get a regular spot and to succeed.

One thing Hughes constantly stresses is "Balance" when discussing team building.
That is why I'm so obsessed with fixing our bottom before trying to determine what we need up top.
I always said we need to build to a point where there are no glaring holes and then find the missing pieces.
I used Vegas and Seattle as examples.

 

[McGees]

His offence will be better than Matheson and his his D can’t be worse.

we good.

 

[BLONG7]

How soon will we see him in the NHL this season?? Did his team get knocked out of their playoffs?

 

[abo9]

I keep echoing the same sentiment.. we need size, badly. Look no further than the Coyotes to see what relying on small scorers does; keller, cooley, etc... it is a massive handcuff in the NHL, you'd think the Habs will have learned their lesson over the past 30 years - small size players do NOT work in the playoffs.
Exactly why i would have tried trading CC to the NYR for Laff when we had a chance, but that ship has sailed.

Im so glad we didnt trade CC for Laf lol

And to your point about small sized players not working in the playoffs... how tall was the latest CS winner?

On D? Eh maybe, maybe not. Its not like theres tons of 5'9 defensemen around the league from which we could glean valuable insights. And Its not like Montreal would be icing 6 Hutson's.

If he makes it, its because he's supremely talented. Ill welcome one such tiny player on my D anyday in place of a Chiarot

 

[WeThreeKings]

How soon will we see him in the NHL this season?? Did his team get knocked out of their playoffs?

Won't likely see him until the final few games in April unless BU gets upset.

 

[Matthew McConaughay]

I have a weird feeling the Habs will pick Zayne Parekh if he's available, we're going to have a surplus of offensive Dmen lol.

 

[HomaridII]

How soon will we see him in the NHL this season?? Did his team get knocked out of their playoffs?

The Regular season is just finished. Now comes the Hockey East Tournament which they should get to the final vs Boston College on March 23.

After that they should easily make the Frozen Four. First round games start March 28 and then up to the finals April 13. So it depends how far his team goes, which will depend on how much consistent goaltending they get, which IMO is the one thing that might stop them from easily making the semifinals at least.

They have a great record against the top teams outside the division too, example:

3-2 win vs Quinnipac
3-2 win vs North Dakota
5-4 OT loss vs North Dakota

 

[BLONG7]

Won't likely see him until the final few games in April unless BU gets upset.

Thx............thought I may have missed something......
I wonder if the kid would benefit from the AHL for a few months, and then come up after Christmas?
Sure looks like Mailloux makes the jump in October!! Worked for him...