Prospect Info: Lane Hutson Part 2

[ChesterNimitz]

Not sure about how to evaluate these stats against each other, but pair Matheson with a stud vet RHD instead of a kid rushed too young and playing off his wing, cut his minutes by 25%, replace him on special teams with actual specialists (like Hutson, here), and we’re all looking at a different defence.

My eval of the D being shit without him starts with one of the worse teams in the nhl and removing it’s best defenseman to pencil in a goon with potential upside. We’re all excited about the team’s potential, me first. I love Mailloux, Xjekaj, Reinbacher and the gang. As it stands they have accomplished nothing and are collectively being eaten alive by the world’s best forwards, and their prime is 5 years away.. They need to start winning before that. Matheson has silky smoothe skating and will be able and keep it up for many years still.

If you are correct that Matheson can keep up his elite skating abilities 'for many years' to come then it would be foolish to trade him. And Hughes is anything but foolish.

As I have often posted, you trade away elite skating at your franchise's peril.

I would respectfully suggest that anyone who believes Hughes and MSL will be trading Matheson, a player who has elite skating ability, plays 25 to 28 minutes each game in all game situations, provides 60+ points production, is a team leader and is local boy who wants to play in the fish bowl that is Montreal, at any time while still playing for a contract that pays him less than $5m per year, is missing the thread.

 

[LaP]

Matheson is not being traded before next summer. And whatever he is taded or not next summer will depend on :

1) How well he plays next season (was last year a fluke?)
2) How greedy he is in his next contract negociation (does he want 6.5+ for 5+ years which means we'll have to renegociate Demidov/Dach/Newhook/... while there's still many years left on Matheson's contract)

 

[WeThreeKings]

Nah, Matheson is here as long as it takes for Hutson to firmly establish himself.

Guhle-Hutson-Engstrom/Xhekaj/Struble down the left side is an eventuality.

 

[Toene]

Nah, Matheson is here as long as it takes for Hutson to firmly establish himself.

Guhle-Hutson-Engstrom/Xhekaj/Struble down the left side is an eventuality.

Something's gotta give though, it's not sustainable to keep so many left-side Ds. Ideally, Matheson and Struble should be traded.

 

[Miller Time]

If you are correct that Matheson can keep up his elite skating abilities 'for many years' to come then it would be foolish to trade him. And Hughes is anything but foolish.

As I have often posted, you trade away elite skating at your franchise's peril.

I would respectfully suggest that anyone who believes Hughes and MSL will be trading Matheson, a player who has elite skating ability, plays 25 to 28 minutes each game in all game situations, provides 60+ points production, is a team leader and is local boy who wants to play in the fish bowl that is Montreal, at any time while still playing for a contract that pays him less than $5m per year, is missing the thread.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Something's gotta give though, it's not sustainable to keep so many left-side Ds. Ideally, Matheson and Struble should be traded.

I really like all of our LHD's so it will be tough to lose any of them.

I think trading Struble will come back to bite us as he has elite shut down potential while also having some intriguing PMD skills and has playoff warrior written all over him.

From a building strategy perspective we really need to get our young RHD's some NHL ice time as well as only Barron has any NHL experience (Mailloux's one game aside). Even after moving Savard, Reinbacher and Mailloux will immediately block any thoughts of trying LHD's to the right side.

It is going to be difficult to get the value that Struble deserves in a trade without him having the opportunity to showcase his play. If he does earn the playing time it will mean that we either have injury issues or that Xhekaj and/or Hutson are struggling which is far fromn ideal as you don't want to trade them either especially with diminished value if they struggle. It becomes enticing to consider trading Matheson as he is older but I really like his game and leadership and I have a difficult time seeing Hughes wanting to do that.

I could see Struble straight up beating out Xhekaj and Hutson in pre-season and making HuGo's decision really tough. I think most people will default to the idea of sending Struble down and that may happen but he will make that decision extremely difficult imo.