A $100M contract for Lane Hutson?

Doing some quick math, that falls to $12.5 million per season. The salary cap is rising fast in the NHL, but a contract like that is simply too big.

We’re talking about a player with only one full season under his belt. Hutson has what it takes to become one of the NHL’s top defensemen one day, but he needs to be patient.

Such a contract would be the second-largest in NHL history for a defenseman, just behind Shea Weber with his $110 million contract over 14 seasons. In fact, $12.5 million would be the highest annual average for a defenseman in NHL history.

We like Hutson a lot, but isn’t that a little too fast?

Blanchet drew a comparison with Quinn Hughes and his first NHL contract by calculating inflation over the past few years. He came up with a contract averaging $10.5 million per season, for a total of $84 million.

That’s a little more realistic, but would still match Carey Price’s record contract with the Canadiens.

Not everyone at TVA Sports agrees. Renaud Lavoie put forward the idea of a transitional contract during his appearance on the JiC show, explaining that $100 million was too much money at the moment.

Lavoie’s idea would greatly benefit Lane Hutson, as the salary cap is set to rise very quickly. He’d cash in a little less during the two or three years of a transition contract, but he’d hit the jackpot when it comes time to sign a real big contract.

All this, of course, if his performance continues to improve.

For his part, Jean-Charles Lajoie is convinced that Lane Hutson will become one of the best defensemen in the Canadiens’ history.

With a title like this, the money will have to follow, that’s for sure.