Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson just won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie for 2024-25. While the win is an undeniable positive, one of many to come out of an incredibly successful season, there’s more to it than what you see at face value.
Diving deeper, Hutson breaking out in the fashion he did amounts to an additional chapter in the storied history of the winningest franchise in the NHL, one seemingly poised for even greater success in the future.
Consider these five takeaways in the wake of the award win:
Hutson Becomes First Canadiens Calder Winner Since Dryden
As alluded to in the headline, Hutson ends a streak of futility that dates back to the beginnings of the last Canadiens dynasty, when Ken Dryden won it in 1972. Now, that’s definitely a decent omen, even if the makings of a dynasty in the modern era are significantly more modest.
Based on the make-up of the NHL these days, it’s unlikely that any team wins four championships in a row again, but, if Hutson can quarterback the power play on even a single Stanley Cup-winning Canadiens team in the near future, Habs fans will probably thank their lucky stars. That sentiment just puts Hutson’s accomplishment in the proper perspective. He doesn’t need to be Dryden, although it’s nice to be able to make the comparison in this specific context, finally.
Of course, there have been close calls in the past, a few even that turned out to be game-breaking talents. That Hutson broke through is a testament to his talent, especially in this season of all seasons.
Hutson Comes out on Top of Stacked Field
Any other year, any of the three other rookies to round out the top four would have had great cases to win the Calder in their own right. For example, Connor Bedard was(is) seen as a generational talent, after having been drafted first overall in 2023 by the Chicago Blackhawks, going on to win the 2024 edition of the award as an 18-year-old. He scored 22 goals 61 points (in 68 games) to capture the title. San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini scored 25 goals and 63 points (70 games) last season after having been drafted first overall in 2024. The guy had a statistically superior season to Bedard… and came in third.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia Flyers forward Matvei Michkov scored the same amount (26 goals) in 80 games. He only finished fourth. Hutson’s runner-up, Calgary Flames goalie Dustin Wolf, put together an incredible 29-16-8 season, while posting a 2.64 goals-against average and .910 save percentage, almost willing a team many envisioned competing for last place overall into the postseason.
These are all incredibly inspiring performances… and the voters for the award, members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association who each love a good story by definition, deemed Hutson’s to be the best of the bunch. That’s impressive in its own right.
Hutson Justifiably Dominates the Vote
Hell, it would be impressive if Hutson would have simply won outright. He didn’t just win, though. He absolutely dominated the vote by capturing 165 of 191 first-place votes, beating out Wolf 1832 total points to 1169. It wasn’t even a shock, though. That’s the crazy thing.
The fact is, in scoring 66 points to rank sixth in league scoring among ALL defensemen, Hutson’s season reads like a record book. To top it all off, he tied then-Los Angeles Kings defenseman Larry Murphy’s rookie-defenseman assists record in the final game of the season, with Kaiden Guhle’s game-winning goal in question sending the Canadiens to the posteason. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone Murphy is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Fourth Defenseman to Lead Rookie Scoring
Of course, Murphy is just one player. Surely there isn’t another Hall-of-Fame defenseman to whom Hutson can be favourably compared? Right?
Well, if it wasn’t clear by now, Hutson led all rookies in scoring, including the forwards. Not even Murphy accomplished that feat. In fact, only three other defensemen have: Bobby Orr, who’s considered the best player ever in some circles, in 1967, Brian Leetch in 1989, and current-Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes in 2020.
Obviously, Orr and Leetch are in the Hall of Fame as well. Hughes may have a way to go, but he’s had a solid start to his career, with Habs fans in general often lamenting how the team chose centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi over the left-handed defenseman with the third pick in 2018. It’s almost as if the Habs have rectified that misfire and now have a player at the same position and of a similar calibre, who’s 4.5 years younger and projected to have similar success on a team arguably on a steeper upward trajectory.
First Major Award Winner for Canadiens Since Carey Price
Goalie Carey Price was the last Canadiens player to win a major award, and that was literally a decade ago when he won two: the Vezina Trophy and Hart Memorial Trophy. On the strength of Price’s play, they reached two Eastern Conference finals, including one Stanley Cup Final. Hutson winning his Calder is a great step in the right direction, to get the franchise back on track to where they can regularly compete for the Cup.
The thing is, with Price in net, they didn’t. Oh, the Canadiens had good seasons here and there, but they were never consistently a threat. And, despite a talented defense corps in front of him, featuring a similarly dynamic P.K. Subban, it always seemed as though ex-general manager Marc Bergevin’s teams were built more not to lose instead of win, based on how he chose to insulate Price, who really only established himself as elite going on Age 27. The Habs may lack an elite goalie now, but they have much more runway with which to work to capitalize on their latest game-breaking talent’s best years. He’s just getting started.
So should the Canadiens be, as the youngest team to make the playoffs this past season. Hutson’s Calder puts an exclamation point on just how exciting a time it is to be a Habs fan, because, more than with Price, there’s a sense any success this team enjoys can be sustainable. It may not be to the same extent as it was with Dryden, because it was a different era, but current-general manager Kent Hughes did effectively burn this team to the ground, which Sam Pollock never had to during his illustrious 14-year tenure as GM.
Further proof to that effect? These Canadiens have a shot at accomplishing something the teams of the 70s never did: Win two Calders in a row. Whether or not Ivan Demidov pulls it off in 2026 or not, it’s safe to say there’s significant, young talent all across the lineup. Even taking into account the few Stanley Cups between the point at which Dryden hung them up in 1979 and now, the future is arguably as bright as it’s ever been since then. This is literally uncharted territory for a team that has won everything there is to win. That would be a first, and not just over the last 50-plus years.
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