Hutson and Struble on the 2nd pair: DailyFaceoff’s (illogical) projection

Dose
Crédit: Montreal Canadiens' Lane Hutson celebrates his goal against the Philadelphia Flyers at Bell Centre.

Noah Dobson’s arrival has changed the Canadiens’ defensive brigade in a big way. The addition of a defenseman like him really improves the club’s top-4… but there’s one question in particular to ask in view of next season:what will Martin St-Louis’ defensive pairings be? Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson, Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle will (most likely) play on the top-4. We agree that this makes a lot of sense. After all, when you look at the team’s projection at the blue line, you see Lane Hutson playing with… Jayden Struble on the club’s second defensive pair.Is that… special? They played together at one point last season, but with Dobson here, I have a hard time agreeing with that idea, especially in the context of Struble and Xhekaj fighting for the 6th defenseman position:

(Credit: DailyFaceoff)

[content-ads] Guhle with Dobson, I like that. The former has defensive qualities that allow him to be really solid… and the second has offensive qualities that allow him to be among the NHL’s elite at that level. That said, by pairing these two guys together, it’s consistent to think that Matheson and Hutson will play together. The idea of pairing Matheson with Carrier isn’t crazy, though, because it could help the left-hander be a little freer on the ice. Carrier is in charge and could back Matheson up if the latter wants to bring the puck up or make more offensive decisions, but the reality is that Matheson needs to play on the top-4. The Canadiens need to exploit his speed and skating stroke if the defenseman is to be successful. And we also know that he needs to have a “big” role to help the Habs more, as he has done since his arrival in Montreal. It remains to be seen, then. But Martin St-Louis will have some pieces to put into his puzzle… and his choices are likely to be the talk of the town, given the talent the Canadiens currently have on defense.

[spacer title=’Overtime’] – That’s right,

– The Penguins could be on the move.

– Allez!

– Bogdan Konyushkov’s team has a new logo.