Ever since he joined the Montreal Canadiens after his sophomore season with Boston University, Lane Hutson has been a scoring machine. He had a fantastic rookie season, netting 66 points in 82 games, and tying Larry Murphy’s 1980-81 record for the most assists by a rookie defenseman in NHL history with 60.
Last night, RDS showed an interesting graphic for the most assists by a defenseman in the first 90 games. Cale Makar, Murphy, and Mark Howe hold the record with 68, but Hutson comes in second place with 66, ahead of Stefan Persson (65), Quinn Hughes (64), and Brian Leetch (64). To say that the young defenseman is in elite company would be accurate.
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With five points in seven games so far this season, the blueliner is on pace for 59 points in an 82-game season. While that would be a diminution from what he did last year, it wouldn’t be a disaster, but I think he’ll actually pick up the pace. Since he signed his eight-year contract extension, he’s been playing much better, like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
Watching him on the ice when he’s there with Ivan Demidov, it’s easy to see the potential the duo could have if they were used on the same power play unit. The pair already puts on a show when they are playing at even strength together, but if they were to play with the man-advantage with extra space and alongside a sniper like Cole Caufield, there would finally be someone with the ability to bury the puck.
After last night’s game, Martin St-Louis said it’s beautiful to watch them go with the give-and-go and the elite passing, but that players become better goal scorers over time in the NHL. While they both develop their goal-scoring ability, it would make sense to allow them to have an elite goal scorer by their side.
Clearly, the initial plan was for Patrik Laine to be Demidov’s sniper. However, while the young Russian has found the big Finn with picture-perfect cross-zone passes numerous times since the start of the season, he has been unable to convert on any of them. With the reduced power play time the second wave gets, it seems like a waste to leave Demidov there—it’s like leaving your most effective weapon locked away.
With a 17.4% success rate on the power play, the Canadiens are 19th in the league. While that’s not disastrous, it’s not good enough. The coach said he would make changes if his units weren’t getting good opportunities, but at the end of the day, chances without goals do not give you wins. Last season, it was Mike Matheson’s injury that led to Hutson being promoted to the first unit, and he was never taken off it. Hopefully, Demidov won’t have to wait as long as the blueliner did; both players’ production would likely rocket if they were to team up on the power play and it would be a great confidence boost for both.
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