LD Lane Hutson - Boston University, NCAA (2022, 62nd, MTL)

[Ligue]

He was officially measured at 5’8.25” at the draft combine in June, then 4 months later, at the start of the NCAA season, BU listed him at 5’10”. It’s extremely unlikely because virtually nobody grows 1.75” in 4 months at the age of 18.

Hell, growing 1.75” in 4 months at any age is very uncommon. Men tend to grow ~3” in their fastest year of growth, or ~1” in 4 months, but that’s around when they hit puberty. For the year from age 18 to 19 men average ~0.3” of growth, or ~0.1” in 4 months. 1.75” inches in 4 months at 18 would be an insanely extreme outlier.

I really like Hutson as a prospect, just pointing out that his listed NCAA height is very, very likely exaggerated.

Was he listed at 5’10 at the start of the season though? I was under the impression his listed height was updated a few weeks ago. I could be wrong though.

 

[Casual]

Thank you for proving my point about Habs fans calling them genius for being mostly lucky!

I would LOVE to hear you argue on the fact that the Habs predicted that a player (who was in the 25-45 range on most mock draft) wouldn't get picked between 34 and 62. And make it sound credible too, since that scenario is as easy to argue than Montreal getting lucky no other GMs took a chance on him during the 2nd round.

Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing pick and they were probably very excited he was available, but there was no way they knew for SURE he would still be there, so they got lucky.

And yes, I'd rather have those 3 players. It's the perfect scenario. But you probably didn't understood my point, since it's irrelevent to what I'm talking about (except if you REALLY think the Habs pull a Mesmer and predicted Hutson would be available for sure at 62).

I might almost never post on these forums, but sincerely... Who cares.
I don't get why it matters to you or why you took your time being negative, since it absolutely doesn't matter where/when/how he was drafted.

He's a Hab. He's exceeding expectations for the moment. He's trending very well. Does it mean he'll become a HoF? Nope. Does it mean he'll be a great or a mediocre NHLer? Nope.

I won't even bother giving you example of steals in the second-seventh round in the last decades, there are way too many. Does it matter where they were drafted when it's all said and done? Nope. Does it mean some GMs were genius or lucky? A little bit or none of both. We'll never know, but most importantly : it doesn't matter.

Now, I'll stick to being a ''read-only'' member for the next few months.

Cheers!

 

[ponder]

Was he listed at 5’10 at the start of the season though? I was under the impression his listed height was updated a few weeks ago. I could be wrong though.

I think it’s been like that all/most of the season, but I could be remembering wrong too. Tried to confirm with the “Wayback Machine”, an web crawler that captures snapshots of sites over time, but seems like it’s not working properly for the BU site, captures the site’s header but none of the content :/

 

[Captain97]

I think it’s been like that all/most of the season, but I could be remembering wrong too. Tried to confirm with the “Wayback Machine”, an web crawler that captures snapshots of sites over time, but seems like it’s not working properly for the BU site, captures the site’s header but none of the content :/

I thought he was listed at 5'9 at the beginning of the season and 5'10 was more recent. Which would be under 2 inches in about 8 months which isn't crazy given his medical reports essentially saying he had one growth spurt left.

 

[Benstheman]

Seider, Power, Sanderson, Schneider, Drysdale in the NHL.

Prospect-wise: Jiricek, Nemec, LHughes, Edvinsson, Clarke, with maybe to Mintyukov/Korchinski/Mateychuk from last year all come to mind.

No, nah and nope.

 

[cave troll]

Lol, what's this fetish with his height?
He can become a hell of a player even if he ends his growth at 178 cm / 5'10".

 

[GTA]

Lol, what's this fetish with his height?
He can become a hell of a player even if he ends his growth at 178 cm / 5'10".

You’ve been a member of hfboards for 10 years and you are surprised that fans are focused on his size as a smallish defenseman?

 

[Colezuki]

I think it’s been like that all/most of the season, but I could be remembering wrong too. Tried to confirm with the “Wayback Machine”, an web crawler that captures snapshots of sites over time, but seems like it’s not working properly for the BU site, captures the site’s header but none of the content :/

I thought he was listed at 5'9 at the beginning of the season and 5'10 was more recent. Which would be under 2 inches in about 8 months which isn't crazy given his medical reports essentially saying he had one growth spurt left.

Captain 97 is correct,

This is the timeline as of today regarding Hutsons Height
- June 2022 - At Combine he's measured at 5ft 8.25
- July 2022 - Then at Canadiens Development Camp Hutson is measured as 5'9 - Link confirmation that included the roster, we don't know how the canadiens measured him but it could have been as simple as 5'8.5 = 5'9. So somewhere around a quarter inch or more
- BU includes the 5'9 number is confirmed by BU at the roster start of season
- Within the last month it was updated to 5'10 and he confirmed it during this interview with Marco D'Amico that he was measured at 5'10 and had been updated by BU accordingly. In Reality though he confirmed it was like 5'9.75 or something like that.

So over 7 months he grew about 1.5 inches hardly earth shattering

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Lol, what's this fetish with his height?
He can become a hell of a player even if he ends his growth at 178 cm / 5'10".

For one - there aren’t many successful small defenders in the NHL, or in NHL history.

So precedent has been set on what types of defenders succeed in the NHL and win championships - and historically it isn’t plauers like Hutson.

 

[Draft]

For one - there aren’t many successful small defenders in the NHL, or in NHL history.

So precedent has been set on what types of defenders succeed in the NHL and win championships - and historically it isn’t plauers like Hutson.

There aren't many defenceman of any size with historic seasons like his in the NCAA either.

 

[Mersss]

Seider, Power, Sanderson, Schneider, Drysdale in the NHL.

Prospect-wise: Jiricek, Nemec, LHughes, Edvinsson, Clarke, with maybe to Mintyukov/Korchinski/Mateychuk from last year all come to mind.

Hutson has been producing any D-man from the last 2 drafts, hell he's even outproducing Luke Hughes...

Fact is, as of now, Hutson look like he would've been an easy top5 pick last year, if not even top3

 

[GermanSpitfire]

There aren't many defenceman of any size with historic seasons in the NCAA either.

You don’t have to tell me how good Hutson is. I was one of the few people that had the balls to rank him high In my draft ranking last year, and I’ve been one of the more vocal supporters of Hutson since last year (I had him at #9 In my final ranking and compared him to Cale Makar)

I am able to be a fan of the player, and root for him going forward but I am also able to put my biases aside and be able to see the things that can hold him back at the next level.

Here is what I wrote about Hutson last year:

“Usually with small players, the first thing you notice about them is their size. Not Hutson, the first thing you notice is how dynamic defender a player he is. He has the ability to stop on a dime, quickly pivot and start back up getting to up speed fast. Very good at finding holes while in transition and is not afraid to carry the puck up the ice. He is a bit unorthodox when defending, at times it looks like he’s panicking but more often than not gets the job done. I believe that Hutson is the most talented player in this draft. He reminds me of Cale Makar.”

 

[cave troll]

For one - there aren’t many successful small defenders in the NHL, or in NHL history.

So precedent has been set on what types of defenders succeed in the NHL and win championships - and historically it isn’t plauers like Hutson.

Makar, Fox, Hughes, Karlsson..all D-men with height between 178cm -182 cm
All 4 are among top D-men in the league. Big frame stopped being a top prerogative for D-men long ago.
IMO, fast and highly skilled smaller D-men will come to the league and play important roles much often than before.

 

[Chainshot]

Hutson has been producing any D-man from the last 2 drafts, hell he's even outproducing Luke Hughes...

Fact is, as of now, Hutson look like he would've been an easy top5 pick last year, if not even top3

My response was about Guhle. Not Hutson.

 

[Draft]

You don’t have to tell me how good Hutson is. I was one of the few people that had the balls to rank him high In my draft ranking last year, and I’ve been one of the more vocal supporters of Hutson since last year (I had him at #9 In my final ranking and compared him to Cale Makar)

I am able to be a fan of the player, and root for him going forward but I am also able to put my biases aside and be able to see the things that can hold him back at the next level.

For sure and we can all see how good he is after this season. My comment is highlighting that this is a very unique player in a unique circumstance - we just don't see players like this come around very often regardless of size. Comparing him to players of his size that have made it and been successful, Hutson is ahead of nearly all of them.

Size will be a limiting factor on the defensive end of things, but it's not going to greatly impact how/if he translates his game as that's not really his strength in the NCAA either. Translating his success will come down to improving his skating, creating strength in his base, and translating his decision making. He can be a good rush defender, be a breakout master, and make good plays in the defensive end... but he's never going to be Weber and clearing the front of the net. None of Q. Hughes, Krug, Girard, Spurgeon, Ghostisbehere, Barrie, Ellis, are expected to play that way. Neither are smaller/weaker All-Stars like Fox or Makar.

The size bit doesn't really matter IMO. It'll be skating and translating his playmaking/decision making to the NHL level that'll determine his trajectory.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Makar, Fox, Hughes, Karlsson..all D-men with height between 178cm -182 cm
All 4 are among top D-men in the league. Big frame stopped being a top prerogative for D-men long ago.
IMO, fast and highly skilled smaller D-men will come to the league and play important roles much often than before.

You may be and probably are right - but from what we’ve seen in the past, teams with small defences don’t win championships. The Avs proved you can have one “small” guy leading the offence from the blue line but the rest of that defence was good size and physicality - hell you even saw from last year that Sam Girard getting injured was a sort of blessing in disguise.

Alas I digress - this isn’t a rabbit hole a want to go down.

 

[Steeler23]

I might almost never post on these forums, but sincerely... Who cares.
I don't get why it matters to you or why you took your time being negative, since it absolutely doesn't matter where/when/how he was drafted.

He's a Hab. He's exceeding expectations for the moment. He's trending very well. Does it mean he'll become a HoF? Nope. Does it mean he'll be a great or a mediocre NHLer? Nope.

I won't even bother giving you example of steals in the second-seventh round in the last decades, there are way too many. Does it matter where they were drafted when it's all said and done? Nope. Does it mean some GMs were genius or lucky? A little bit or none of both. We'll never know, but most importantly : it doesn't matter.

Now, I'll stick to being a ''read-only'' member for the next few months.

Cheers!

I'm amaze that you took your time to call me out for being "negative", while people are arguing about random 1 inche size difference and other irrelevent things.

The whole point of my argument was to answer to someone who said that 31 GMs look dumb right now. I'm not the first one who said they looked dumb, but by that logic, Mtl GM should also be in that lot, since Hutson is proving he should've been taken in the 1st round and they took the risk he wouldn't be there at 62. They've been mostly lucky.

What I'm saying about Hutson from the start is that he's proving that he was very well worth a 1st round selection. How am I the negative one?

 

[cave troll]

You may be and probably are right - but from what we’ve seen in the past, teams with small defences don’t win championships. The Avs proved you can have one “small” guy leading the offence from the blue line but the rest of that defence was good size and physicality - hell you even saw from last year that Sam Girard getting injured was a sort of blessing in disguise.

Alas I digress - this isn’t a rabbit hole a want to go down.

Yes. You can't win with 6 Makars, Foxes, Hutsons, but having one of those types of D-men in your team can be very useful.
I hope this will become a trend. I'll glady watch those kind of D-men driving the offensive play then watching giants with stone hands commanding from blue line.

 

[Captain97]

You may be and probably are right - but from what we’ve seen in the past, teams with small defences don’t win championships. The Avs proved you can have one “small” guy leading the offence from the blue line but the rest of that defence was good size and physicality - hell you even saw from last year that Sam Girard getting injured was a sort of blessing in disguise.

Alas I digress - this isn’t a rabbit hole a want to go down.

I will say if you look at the Habs other D Prosepcts/young Dmen he will be well insulated

Xhekaj - 6'4
Mailloux - 6'3
Guhle - 6'2
Barron - 6'2

If you count
Kovacevic 6'4

The only other small Dman is Harris at 5'11

 

[HuGo Sham]

You may be and probably are right - but from what we’ve seen in the past, teams with small defences don’t win championships. The Avs proved you can have one “small” guy leading the offence from the blue line but the rest of that defence was good size and physicality - hell you even saw from last year that Sam Girard getting injured was a sort of blessing in disguise.

Alas I digress - this isn’t a rabbit hole a want to go down.

I agree; the habs bludgeoned their way to a covid cup final with 6'5 Edmundson, 6'4 Weber, 6'3 Chiarot and 6'3 Petry.

Hutson, if he makes it, will be insulated with the size habs have drafted in recent years

 

[Garbageyuk]

It’s funny seeing all the squabbling over whether or not the Habs were smart or lucky because before the draft, I wanted the Habs to take him at 26. I was even worried that he might be gone by 26 because, to me, his talent was so evident.

More than one Habs fan replied to me saying he’d be there at 62, so it’s not a stretch to think the Habs thought the same before hand, and it wasn’t just some opportunistic grab once they saw he was still there.

I’m glad they got him at 62 though because we got both Mesar and Beck as well. So were the Habs smart or lucky? Who cares lol.

 

[ponder]

Captain 97 is correct,

This is the timeline as of today regarding Hutsons Height
- June 2022 - At Combine he's measured at 5ft 8.25
- July 2022 - Then at Canadiens Development Camp Hutson is measured as 5'9 - Link confirmation that included the roster, we don't know how the canadiens measured him but it could have been as simple as 5'8.5 = 5'9. So somewhere around a quarter inch or more
- BU includes the 5'9 number is confirmed by BU at the roster start of season
- Within the last month it was updated to 5'10 and he confirmed it during this interview with Marco D'Amico that he was measured at 5'10 and had been updated by BU accordingly. In Reality though he confirmed it was like 5'9.75 or something like that.

So over 7 months he grew about 1.5 inches hardly earth shattering

Ah fair enough, ty for all the details. Although, that would still be quite the outlier. 1.75” (or 1.5”) in 7 months may be ordinary at say 14, but it’s extremely unusual at 18. On average men grow ~0.3” in 2 years from 18 to 20, with certainly plenty of variance, but anything over 1” after turning 18 is quite rare, especially in just 7 months.

But certainly, if it’s over 7 months, and he’s rounding up, then yeah, 1.5” over 7 months does seem more plausible than 1.75” over 4. Still extremely rare at that age, though. It’s possible, but I’d still side towards there being some exaggeration, along the lines of a “generous” measurement where he’s lifting up his heels and they aren’t really pushing his hair all the way down, so that he’s maybe 5’9.25”, not 5’9.75”. If you’re a small NHL prospect, especially a dman, size is soooo important to your career, it’s human nature to lie a bit, which makes me doubt unusually high growth that isn’t backed up by rigorous, unbiased measurements (like at the combine). But who knows, he could also be a real extreme outlier in terms of grow rate at 18.

 

[Colezuki]

Ah fair enough, ty for all the details. Although, that would still be quite the outlier. 1.75” (or 1.5”) in 7 months may be ordinary at say 14, but it’s extremely unusual at 18. On average men grow ~0.3” in 2 years from 18 to 20, with certainly plenty of variance, but anything over 1” after turning 18 is quite rare, especially in just 7 months.

But certainly, if it’s over 7 months, and he’s rounding up, then yeah, 1.5” over 7 months does seem more plausible than 1.75” over 4. Still extremely rare at that age, though. It’s possible, but I’d still side towards there being some exaggeration, along the lines of a “generous” measurement where he’s lifting up his heels and they aren’t really pushing his hair all the way down, so that he’s maybe 5’9.25”, not 5’9.75”. If you’re a small NHL prospect, especially a dman, size is soooo important to your career, it’s human nature to lie a bit, which makes me doubt unusually high growth that isn’t backed up by rigorous, unbiased measurements (like at the combine). But who knows, he could also be a real extreme outlier in terms of grow rate at 18.

Your right it would be the outlier, but he does have a genetic backing for it as he called out both his brother and dad had growth spurts at around the same time and there both 5’11 and the report suggested that he was due for a growth spurt. Didn’t even know you could get a report on that lol

 

[Postulates]

Ah fair enough, ty for all the details. Although, that would still be quite the outlier. 1.75” (or 1.5”) in 7 months may be ordinary at say 14, but it’s extremely unusual at 18. On average men grow ~0.3” in 2 years from 18 to 20, with certainly plenty of variance, but anything over 1” after turning 18 is quite rare, especially in just 7 months.

But certainly, if it’s over 7 months, and he’s rounding up, then yeah, 1.5” over 7 months does seem more plausible than 1.75” over 4. Still extremely rare at that age, though. It’s possible, but I’d still side towards there being some exaggeration, along the lines of a “generous” measurement where he’s lifting up his heels and they aren’t really pushing his hair all the way down, so that he’s maybe 5’9.25”, not 5’9.75”. If you’re a small NHL prospect, especially a dman, size is soooo important to your career, it’s human nature to lie a bit, which makes me doubt unusually high growth that isn’t backed up by rigorous, unbiased measurements (like at the combine). But who knows, he could also be a real extreme outlier in terms of grow rate at 18.

It's been mentioned in this thread a lot, but he isnt 18 from a growth perspective

 

[wetcoast]

No, they listed him at 5’9 at the start of the season in october. They updated his profil to 5’10 last week or 2 weeks ago, in their mid-season update.

He might not be 5’10 but he is definitely taller than he was in october. I watched every BU game since the start of the season and he definitely grew, it’s apparent on the ice.

He may or may not be taller but one thing is certain in that his height gain, if any, would not be apparent by watching him from a distance, ie the stands but would be apparent if an actual measurement was taken.

Interesting prospect to be sure but size will always be somewhat of an issue for Lane to deal with at the NHL level.