Player Discussion Lane Hutson Part 2

[malcb33]

Why would we entertain trading a player with star potential like that? We should bet on this type of upside.

Let me start by saying, I don’t think Hutson should be traded.

As for reasons why, there would be a couple that come to mind.

He plays a position (LHD) which the Habs are the deepest. Trading Lane could net a very high end forward prospect. Essentially trading from an area of strength for an area of weakness. Could Engstrom take Lane’s offensive D role?

Trading him at his peak value. Depending how the management feel about his game transferring to the pro’s, trading him now before he potentially hits a learning period (AHL?) as he adjusts to the pro game which could drop his value as a prospect, depending on how it goes.

Obviously trading a player of his ability has a major opportunity to blow up in your face, so you have to be very sure of what you’re doing.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Only one goal?

Yeah, only 3 goals in 6 games. Goals per game or bust.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Fair enough. I just don’t know that Hutson’s skating is necessarily worse - he’s just very different. He’s slower for sure.

Hughes is quite literally better at every aspect of skating. Lanes edgework gets overrated on this board because of how elusive he is but this is mostly due to his incredible instincts, fakes, shimmies and his elite hands that allow him to effortlessly cradle the puck while making these moves. I made the mistake of originally giving too much credit to his edge work until I started watching a little closer. He is still very impressive on his outside edges but significantly less so on his inside edges.

Hughes speed, explosiveness and back skating are all well above Lane's level and despite Lane's impressive edgework at times it is still a win for Hughes in that department as well.

I saw that someone mentioned his shot as being underrated and perhaps that is true if the general opinion is that it is poor but I am not sure that is the case. He has very little power on any of his shots and is not much of a threat to beat goalies from a distance. He is however a threat to score goals as he is exceptional at threading his shot through traffic and putting it in places that are difficult for the goalie to stop. He is also good at disguising his release when he gets below the dots. I am not sure I would call his shot a strength when viewed in a vacuum but I would agree that he has the potential to score goals in the NHL.

Lane's greatest strength is his mind and it makes all aspects of his game better including the aspects that are not naturally a strength without his brain directing them and supplying an advantage.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

What's his trade value right now?

Two Slafkovskis. One Shane Wright. Four Logan Cooleys and five Pitlicks.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

It's become a weapon, it really wasn't in his draft year.

Still developing. Love the results we’ve seen but he’ll continue to work on areas of improvement. Hopefully he might even get a little taller too.

Glad he hasn’t been rushed. I’d be willing to bet that under the old regime he’d have already been called up.

 

[admiralcadillac]

Hughes is quite literally better at every aspect of skating. Lanes edgework gets overrated on this board because of how elusive he is but this is mostly due to his incredible instincts, fakes, shimmies and his elite hands that allow him to effortlessly cradle the puck while making these moves. I made the mistake of originally giving too much credit to his edge work until I started watching a little closer. He is still very impressive on his outside edges but significantly less so on his inside edges.

Hughes speed, explosiveness and back skating are all well above Lane's level and despite Lane's impressive edgework at times it is still a win for Hughes in that department as well.

I saw that someone mentioned his shot as being underrated and perhaps that is true if the general opinion is that it is poor but I am not sure that is the case. He has very little power on any of his shots and is not much of a threat to beat goalies from a distance. He is however a threat to score goals as he is exceptional at threading his shot through traffic and putting it in places that are difficult for the goalie to stop. He is also good at disguising his release when he gets below the dots. I am not sure I would call his shot a strength when viewed in a vacuum but I would agree that he has the potential to score goals in the NHL.

Lane's greatest strength is his mind and it makes all aspects of his game better including the aspects that are not naturally a strength without his brain directing them and supplying an advantage.

I don’t want to be condescending because your post is good - I just don’t understand how someone can say his skating is overrated because of how elusive he is. I guess he is elusive despite his skating ability. He has a hoverboard? He’s younger than the first two Hughes brothers so who knows how explosive he’ll be later on.

Lane’s shot selection is impressive. It’s like Gaudreau said: it doesn’t need to be hard just well placed.

 

[the valiant effort]

Hoverbikes!

 

[KevSkillz4]

Lane Hutson will be considering a top 5 pick in few years in 2022 re-draft, I'm 100% confident with that. He only have 6 points in 6 games this year, but he play at offense better than his actual stats, he can easily have 12 points at this point. He is dominant at offensive zone. Hughes//Fox potential is there for him. He need to improve his skating and his defensive zone, but that's thing who can improve with good coaching staff. Very very special talent right there. Habs have a really good one with him!

 

[Mrb1p]

I remember the Caufield prospect threads (all 13 of them!) and how so many people said he'd be a PP specialist because of his small stature and how he'd have a hard time at ES. Even the heralded 'prospect evaluator' Goldenhands thought so.

Well hes heralded because he had Slaf first, not sure if thats an actual flex.

 

[KevSkillz4]

I don't know why @The Gr8 Dane put a smile on my post about Hutson and his talent/potential. You need to understand that Habs can have a special talent selected not in 1st round like Dallas with Jason Robertson and Tampa with Brayden Point in 3rd round.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Well hes heralded because he had Slaf first, not sure if thats an actual flex.

Ive seen posts

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

I don’t want to be condescending because your post is good - I just don’t understand how someone can say his skating is overrated because of how elusive he is. I guess he is elusive despite his skating ability. He has a hoverboard? He’s younger than the first two Hughes brothers so who knows how explosive he’ll be later on.

Lane’s shot selection is impressive. It’s like Gaudreau said: it doesn’t need to be hard just well placed.

At the same age as Hutson both Hughes brothers were elite skaters and you can absolutely be extremely elusive without being a great all around skater as Mike Ribeiro, Claude Giroux, Jason Spezza etc were. Using upper body deception, directional deceptio, change of pace and anticipating your opponents moves before they can anticipate yours has proven to be key components used to create an elusive skill package.

Lane has good edgework which puts him over the top but my only point is that Hughes is even better at that but doesn't need to rely on it like Lane does due to the fact that he can flat out outskate the vast majority of players. Lane has almost zero edgework when skating backwards and is far less explosive than Hughes in all directions when he is on his edges. Hutson often relies on a hop move to come in and out of his edges as he is trying to compensate for a lack of lower body strength.

Lane has a very unique and distinct skating style that has been shaped by his physical limitations. It will be really interesting to see how he evolves if he can gain significant lower body and core strength.

IMO Lane's greatest attributes by a long shot are his IQ, hands and passing ability which is not talked about enough as his ability to elevate passes through traffic with perfect pace is exceptional and is my favourite thing to watch him do.

 

[Jaynki]

Let me start by saying, I don’t think Hutson should be traded.

As for reasons why, there would be a couple that come to mind.

He plays a position (LHD) which the Habs are the deepest. Trading Lane could net a very high end forward prospect. Essentially trading from an area of strength for an area of weakness. Could Engstrom take Lane’s offensive D role?

Trading him at his peak value. Depending how the management feel about his game transferring to the pro’s, trading him now before he potentially hits a learning period (AHL?) as he adjusts to the pro game which could drop his value as a prospect, depending on how it goes.

Obviously trading a player of his ability has a major opportunity to blow up in your face, so you have to be very sure of what you’re doing.

If it do land an high end forward prospect, a game breaker, i think it is something we could entertain.

Personally tho, a huge talent with as much upside as Hutson should be a player who we bet on, and not who we look to trade. Unless we have really a proven, elite forward on the other end of the spectrum.

I expect a PPG defenseman in the NHL to look exactly like Hutson is looking in the NCAA

 

[admiralcadillac]

At the same ageas Hutson both Hughes brothers were elite skaters and you can absolutely be extremely elusive without being a great all around skater as Mike Ribeiro, Claude Giroux, Jason Spezza etc were. Using upper body deception, directional deceptio, change of pace and anticipating your opponents moves before they can anticipate yours has proven to be key components used to create an elusive skill package.

Lane has good edgework which puts him over the top but my only point is that Hughes is even better at that but doesn't need to rely on it like Lane does due to the fact that he can flat out outskate the vast majority of players. Lane has almost zero edgework when skating backwards and is far less explosive than Hughes in all directions when he is on his edges. Hutson often relies on a hop move to come in and out of his edges as he is trying to compensate for a lack of lower body strength.

Lane has a very unique and distinct skating style that has been shaped by his physical limitations. It will be really interesting to see how he evolves if he can gain significant lower body and core strength.

IMO Lane's greatest attributes by a long shot are his IQ, hands and passing ability which is not talked about enough as his ability to elevate passes through traffic with perfect pace is exceptional and is my favourite thing to watch him do.

Anyone looking at Lane knows that his ability to skate laterally is a huge attribute that you don’t see in other prospects. I didn’t see it in Quinn Hughes.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

I don't know why @The Gr8 Dane put a smile on my post about Hutson and his talent/potential. You need to understand that Habs can have a special talent selected not in 1st round like Dallas with Jason Robertson and Tampa with Brayden Point in 3rd round.

Hutson will never be able to play the complete game robertson and point play because he is too small and light , I love Hutson but he's not a slam dunk sure thing like you are making him out to be......

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Hutson will never be able to play the complete game robertson and point play because he is too small and light , I love Hutson but he's not a slam dunk sure thing like you are making him out to be......

You should watch the games. He doesn't look that small anymore. Another season of NCAA access to premium training facilities and he'll be ready for the NHL.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

You should watch the games. He doesn't look that small anymore. Another season of NCAA access to premium training facilities and he'll be ready for the NHL.

I do watch games of his and I think the kid can be amazing in the NHL if he improves on his D and back skating but its not a sure thing , not an easy league to play in

 

[Barriwhite]

Two Slafkovskis. One Shane Wright. Four Logan Cooleys and five Pitlicks.

About five pitlicks is the new about tree fiddy.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

I do watch games of his and I think the kid can be amazing in the NHL if he improves on his D and back skating but its not a sure thing , not an easy league to play in

Too much hockey IQ not to make the big show. At worst, he'll become an elite winger.

 

[canucklover123]

I enjoyed his ability to get pucks through and his ability to open his hips and freeze attackers in the offensive zone is gorgeous. His straight line speed doesnt stick out but left to right agility is wow

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Too much hockey IQ not to make the big show. At worst, he'll become an elite winger.

This isn't NHL 12 where you can put Nathan Beaulieu on the wing and have him put up 100 points. Hutson is a defenseman through and through. Even offensively, he's able to be a rover BECAUSE he's a defenseman.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

This isn't NHL 12 where you can put Nathan Beaulieu on the wing and have him put up 100 points. Hutson is a defenseman through and through. Even offensively, he's able to be a rover BECAUSE he's a defenseman.

Let's not act as if it never happened before. If his defensive deficuencies are too big but the offense is all there, it's still a possibility. Byfuglien is the best known case.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Let's not act as if it never happened before. If his defensive deficuencies are too big but the offense is all there, it's still a possibility. Byfuglien is the best known case.

Byfuglien played a bit as a forward for a couple seasons but was a defenseman the vast majority of the time. He was also moved to forward to act as a big body in front of the net, something Hutson would only be able to accomplish if he were playing Atom hockey.

He'll be a defenseman, and he won't ever be amazing defensively but we just have to live with that as he'll be the most dynamic offensive defenseman we've had in the 21st century.

 

[JJ68]

Byfuglien played a bit as a forward for a couple seasons but was a defenseman the vast majority of the time. He was also moved to forward to act as a big body in front of the net, something Hutson would only be able to accomplish if he were playing Atom hockey.

He'll be a defenseman, and he won't ever be amazing defensively but we just have to live with that as he'll be the most dynamic offensive defenseman we've had in the 21st century.

more than Subban or Markov? I just need something measureable to go by

 

[danisonfire]

Agility, i will give the edge to Hutson, never seen a player so agile on his skates.

This is more important than speed as long as they are not getting beat to the outside, over and over.

It makes them like little water bugs on the ice that can just pop out into open space; changing from covered to a target for a pass, instantly.

Agility also helps the player self-create their own space and shooting lanes for the same reason. This is why Lane is a point production machine.

Markov was similar. He was extremely agile on the Blueline and could self create his own shooting and passing lanes that were "covered" before his movement.