Lane Hutson Ahead In The Calder Race According To The Athletic

The Athletic's Scott Wheeler and Harman Dayal have penned an article about the Calder Trophy Race ranking the top-five rookies and Montreal Canadiens rookie blueliner comes out on top. While Wheeler gives him the top spot, Dayal gives him the second place, giving his first place ballot to Calgary

Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf. 

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Wheeler believes Hutson should beat Wolf and San Jose Sharks Macklin Celebrini in the three-horse race because what he's accomplishing is the rarest. It's hard to argue with that point, right now, he's tied in fifth place for most points amongst all defensemen with 51. Only Cale Makar (75), Zach Werenski (69), Quinn Hughes (61) and Evan Bouchard (52) have more points than the new fan favourite in Montreal. 

In Wednesday's game against the Seattle Kraken, he picked up a pair of assist to break the 50-point barrier before any other rookie. He's two points ahead of Celebrini and four points ahead of Philadelphia Flyers Matvei Michkov. 

Dayal adds that Hutson has a legitimate shot at breaking the rookie blueliner assist record of 60 held jointly by Brian Leetch and Larry Murphy.  While they don't mention it, the Canadiens' rearguard also has a chance to break Chris Chelios' record for the most points by a Montreal rookie defenseman, Chelios had 64 in 1984-85. 

It also took Hutson only 63 games to reach the 50-career-point mark while Chelios needed 66. Rewriting the record book of a team as storied as the Canadiens is quite a feat and while Wolf and Celebrini are also having good seasons, to me they aren't as remarkable as Hutson's. 

Celebrini's 48 points give him the 74th place amongst forwards, a far cry away from Hutson's dominance of his position.  Wolf's 2.53 goals-against average is the 18th highest in the league amongst goaltenders who have played at least 10 games while his .915 percentage is ninth amongst the same group. The last time a goaltender won the big prize (Steve Mason in 2008-09), he had 33 wins, Wolf has 22. Mason's GAA stood at 2.29, significantly better than Wolf's. 16 goaltenders have won the Calder, and only four had a higher GAA than Wolf. 

The article has Hutson finishing first, Wolf second, Celebrini third, Michkov fourth and recently traded to the Carolina Hurricanes Logan Stankoven fifth.