Last week, Tony Marinaro welcomed Kent Hughes to his radio show on BPM Sports.
A number of topics were obviously discussed concerning the Habs, but the one I picked up on first was the fact that he has no desire to “hide” Lane Hutson on the ice.
If he makes the club, it’s not to be an offensive specialist: it’s to play on 200 feet. And if he can’t do that, he’ll perfect his game with the Rocket and Pascal Vincent.
This has put clearer expectations (publicly) on Hutson to determine whether he’ll fit in with the Montreal Canadiens once training camp ends in a few weeks.
After all, we know he has a good chance of making the club (or so just about everyone predicts, anyway), even if we won’t give him a spot just for fun.
But Hughes’ words can also be seen in another light.
According to what Brian Wilde said yesterday on Tony Marinaro’s Sick Podcast, the Habs GM’s comments could open the door to Lane Hutson starting the season with the Rocket.
In his eyes, when you look between the lines, the GM said the following: unless Lane Hutson has an extraordinary camp (and that obviously involves the defensive side), he’ll be going to Laval.
Is that really what the GM meant? Only Hughes and his inner circle really know. But if that’s what he meant, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to bring the defender back down to earth.
We all know that Lane Hutson needs to work on his defensive game(which isn’t up to scratch), but now the importance of the 200-foot game is greater than ever in his case.
I still think Hutson will be playing in the NHL as early as October, but the journalist’s comments are interesting.
What’s also worth considering is that even though Jordan Harris and Johnathan Kovacevic have left for Columbus and Newark, Kent Hughes has the luxury of sending defensemen to Laval for the sake of their development.
That wasn’t the case in 2022, when it was the Canadiens’ blue-line rookie festival.
Last year, we saw that the Habs were more inclined to send their young backs to the AHL. But will Lane Hutson be the kind of defenseman who wouldn’t benefit too much from going down there?
We’ll find out during training camp.
