The Montreal Canadiens have signed defenceman Lane Hutson to an 8 year, $70.8M contract extension which will tie him to the franchise through 2033-34.
Hutson’s new deal will feature an $8.85M AAV against the cap, rewarding the reigning Calder Trophy winner for his strong on ice play. The pact will also feature a 10 team no trade list in years 6 through 8, and be signing bonus heavy vs. actual dollars paid. It will break down as follows:
Year 1 $1M Base & $11M SB
Year 2 $1M & $11M SB
Year 3 $1M & $9.5M SB
Year 4 $1M & $6.5M SB
Year 5 $1.2M & $6M SB
Year 6 $1.2M & $6M SB
Year 7 $2.2M & $5M SB
Year 8 $7.2M
“What it tells you about Lane Hutson is that he likes playing in Montreal and he wants Montreal to be in a position to win,” Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes told reporters Monday. “I had a conversation with Lane over the weekend. He talked about his view on things, and it struck me that he wanted to make sure we understood how much he wanted to be here and how hard he was going to work. I kinda cut him off and said, ‘Lane, there wouldn’t be an eight-year deal if we didn’t believe in who you are at your core.”
“The kind of person he is, how committed he is to being his best version of himself, but also being the best version of a teammate.”
Hutson is the first Habs player since Ken Dryden in 1971-72 to take home the Calder Trophy after registering 66 points (6G, 60A) across 82 games played last season. He became just the 4th blue liner in the modern era to lead his class in scoring, joining Bobby Orr, Brian Leetch, and Quinn Hughes in that rarified category.
Originally selected in the 2nd round (62nd overall) by Montreal in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, the 21 year old tied Larry Murphy for the most assists by a rookie defenceman in NHL history last year. Hutson was set to become a restricted free agent following the 2025-26 NHL campaign, so by putting pen to paper it removes a potential distraction in the hockey crazed Montreal market.
The former US National Development Team product joins teammates Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Noah Dobson and Kaiden Guhle as players who have signed long term deals with the club. Montreal now has each of those players signed through at least the 2029-30 season.
Montreal is 2-1-0 to start the season, with Hutson recording an assist through the first 3 games of the year. The Canadiens are next in action on Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken in a 7pm ET showdown.
Photo: Sandro Halank. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.