The NHL 15: Lane Hutson's contract has Montreal set up for long-term success

The Montreal Canadiens have an outstanding young core and now they are all signed long-term to extremely team-friendly contracts. The future is bright here.

Before each NHL season I look at 15 players that I think are the most intriguing players in the NHL. Not necessarily the best players (though, sometimes they are), but players that offer some sort of intrigue, a big storyline or figure to be a major X-factor for the season. This is The NHL 15. We continue today with Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson, who just signed a long-term contract extension that helps give the team a huge long-term advantage over their competition.

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Talking about player contracts is not the most enjoyable thing about sports for me. At the end of the day, it is not my money and I could not give less of a shit if a billionaire makes a bad investment on a player and has to pay the price for it. In fact, it kind of makes me mad when they do NOT spend their money (looking at you, Bob Nutting).

But when you are talking about sports and leagues with a salary cap, it becomes a huge part of the discussion because it significantly impacts how your team is built, how it can be built and how easy it will be for that team to seriously compete for a championship. Or just compete in general.

It is a gigantic part of the NHL, so you are going to pay a lot of attention to it. You have to pay a lot of attention to it. Every dollar a team spends on one player is a dollar it can not spend on another player. A bunch of little mistakes add up into big mistakes. It matters. A lot.

That brings us to the Montreal Canadiens who just signed another of their core players to a long-term contract extension on Monday, getting defenseman Lane Hutson to sign an eight-year, $70.8 million contract, averaging out to an $8.85 million salary cap number per season.

Even under last year’s salary cap situation, or this year’s salary cap situation, it is the type of deal that just looks like it is going to end up as a long-term bargain for the Canadiens. It would not even crack the top-40 salary cap numbers in the NHL this season, or the top-15 defensemen. It is not even the biggest defenseman contract on the Canadiens. It is less than Luke Hughes, a player who has never had a single season as good as Hutson’s 2024-25 season, just signed for in New Jersey. It’s an amazing deal.

If Hutson continues on the trajectory he showed last year he has sky-high potential and could be one of the most productive defensemen in the league. He will not be paid like one.

That is the beauty of this contract for Montreal, especially with how it fits into the rest of their team and young core.

Between Hutson, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsy and offseason addition Noah Dobson the Canadiens have five of their most important players locked into long-term contracts that should all be considered extremely team-friendly deals.

That is the type of roster management that can eventually lead to championships. Or at least position yourself for a championship.

Let’s talk about that.