LD Lane Hutson - Montreal Canadiens, NHL (2022, 62nd, MTL) - Part 2

[dgibb10]

I don't know why you persist in writing posts that are longer than 3 words, since they can all basically be wrapped up by "Hutson bad huhuhuhuhuhuhh".

When Hutson was playing at an elite level I was full of praise for him.

He is ELITE offensively.

Unfortunately he is dogshit defensively. AND THAT IS OKAY.


Stop comparing him to Cale Makar and stop pretending his defense is good if you don't want his abysmal defensive results brought up

 

[Lampedampe]

My point is that I hate when people pull out these charts or even stats to claim "this or that player was worse or better" and we don't even have a clean comparison because the players are not in the same draft or they are not in the same year.

I think it suggests flaws in these charts or stats that they aren't able to account for this. Not to say "the eye test" isn't without flaws, but I trust it more when you are dealing with a messy comparison using the charts or stats.

That's fair enough.

Sadly i don't think there is perfect way to evaluate a player, stats aren't perfect. Neither is a eye-test.

My limited eye test says that Hutson is generally sound positionally, and he's got good stick work. However, he's incredibly reckless in his own-zone sometimes, often leading giveaways. His physicallity also limits how effective he can be defensively around the net and boards.

 

[Baksfamous112]

That's fair enough.

Sadly i don't think there is perfect way to evaluate a player, stats aren't perfect. Neither is a eye-test.

My limited eye test says that Hutson is generally sound positionally, and he's got good stick work. However, he's incredibly reckless in his own-zone sometimes, often leading giveaways. His physicallity also limits how effective he can be defensively around the net and boards.

Every player - young or veteran - will eventually make mistakes when they touch the puck 5-7x more often than others in their own zone. That’s just common sense. To single out these rare mistakes when they happen to justify why someone is “bad” defensively is pure trolling and something dgibb is good at doing.

Hutson make up for his lack of physicality with aggressiveness and body positioning which help him win more puck battle than other small D. No one expect him to win them all, that’s why it’s called a 50/50 battle, because you’re not supposed to get out of there with the puck every single time yet some people will use that to say he’s too “small” to be effective along the boards

 

[Frank Drebin]

Stop.

Just stop.

This is my point.

Hutson is BAD defensively. And that is OKAY. Because he is a rookie, and because he is 20 years old. And because he is excellent offensively.

But that doesn't change the reality. Which is that he has been one of the worst dmen in the league defensively this year.

When we start saying stuff like he was on the level of rookie Makar it becomes ridiculous. View attachment 983513
View attachment 983515


Makar was a genuinely good defensive player as a rookie

Hutson shows glimpses of the skills needed to manage defensively while giving up ridiculous amounts of chances and being very much a defensive negative.

People think he's bad defensively because he's been really bad defensively this year.

I hate the makar comparisons. Makar is likely the best all around defenseman to play in this league since Ray bourque. He’s generational .Comparisons to him are only going to look bad for hutson


That said, who a player plays with, and what team he plays for have to affect those numbers?


Ive seen hutson range from poor (never horrible) to good (never elite) defensively this season and those numbers suggest that he’s simply horrible which I disagree with

If Hutson was paired with a Chris tanev type playing second pairing minutes on a top 5 team in the league those numbers would have to look different?

 

[Spilot23]

I also hate the Makar comp since both players came from different team's expectation. Makar came in the playoffs when Avs was a bubble team. But after that the expectations were much higher and needed to be a consistant player while Avs were contender or cup favorite. Hutson came in Montreal were the team was not even expected to make the playoffs and could play his game. Also I think that both players are different where Makar plays a more physical game and has a better shot from the point. Hughes probably a better comparison IMO both use alot of agility, shiftiness and their hockey IQ in the offensive zone to create chances. Either way came here to say that I was wrong on Hutson I thought he was another overhyped prospect from Montreal media (I live in Quebec I know how media works here )

 

[bringbacktheskate604]

Every player - young or veteran - will eventually make mistakes when they touch the puck 5-7x more often than others in their own zone. That’s just common sense. To single out these rare mistakes when they happen to justify why someone is “bad” defensively is pure trolling and something dgibb is good at doing.

Hutson make up for his lack of physicality with aggressiveness and body positioning which help him win more puck battle than other small D. No one expect him to win them all, that’s why it’s called a 50/50 battle, because you’re not supposed to get out of there with the puck every single time yet some people will use that to say he’s too “small” to be effective along the boards

He's bad defensively no matter how you try to spin it.

One only needs to watch another smaller Dman in Quinn or look at his data to see the massive difference.

Maybe one day Lane will improve like Quinn has but Quinn was never this poor so anyone expecting that type of trajectory are likely gonna be disappointed.

 

[Fatass]

How many “must watch” players are in the league? Hutson is a “must watch” player. Love watching this guy play.

 

[dgibb10]

I hate the makar comparisons. Makar is likely the best all around defenseman to play in this league since Ray bourque. He’s generational .Comparisons to him are only going to look bad for hutson


That said, who a player plays with, and what team he plays for have to affect those numbers?


Ive seen hutson range from poor (never horrible) to good (never elite) defensively this season and those numbers suggest that he’s simply horrible which I disagree with

If Hutson was paired with a Chris tanev type playing second pairing minutes on a top 5 team in the league those numbers would have to look different?

I agree. (but there is a limit to this, you could apply this logic to every scrub dman in the league who are big reasons why their teams are bad as a justification for how they aren't actually that bad defensively)

There is also a playstyle aspect to it.

Hutson is playing free wheeling, uber high event hockey.

He could 100% take a back seat, stay at home, and put up much better defensive results. Many just straight up bad dmen (and bad players in general) are able to manage fairly low event hockey. Hutson being more skilled than those dmen could very likely do that as well.

It would just come at a cost to his offense, which I don't think MTL would view as a worthwhile trade off at this point.

 

[dgibb10]

Every player - young or veteran - will eventually make mistakes when they touch the puck 5-7x more often than others in their own zone. That’s just common sense. To single out these rare mistakes when they happen to justify why someone is “bad” defensively is pure trolling and something dgibb is good at doing.

Hutson make up for his lack of physicality with aggressiveness and body positioning which help him win more puck battle than other small D. No one expect him to win them all, that’s why it’s called a 50/50 battle, because you’re not supposed to get out of there with the puck every single time yet some people will use that to say he’s too “small” to be effective along the boards

Except I'm not talking about rare one on one mistakes or puck battles.

I am talking about the fact that, with Lane Hutson on the ice, the opposing team just so happens to consistently, weirdly, generate a shit ton of offensive chances, high danger chances, and goals.

 

[David Suzuki]

you know i thought hutson looked alright defensively but if jfresh says otherwise, it’s time to reconsider everything i’ve ever known about the sport of hockey.

 

[covfefe]

Except I'm not talking about rare one on one mistakes or puck battles.

I am talking about the fact that, with Lane Hutson on the ice, the opposing team just so happens to consistently, weirdly, generate a shit ton of offensive chances, high danger chances, and goals.

You heard it here folks, the #1 defenseman on a team with a -24 goal differential is leaving things to be desired defensively.