“If Lane Hutson could sign for 16 years today, he would”

Dose
Crédit: Lane Hutson skating for Montreal Canadiens in preseason NHL game.

There’s been a lot of talk about Lane Hutson’s contract situation in recent months. After all, seeing him break it all in his first year in the NHL has made him a (very) quick crowd favorite in Montreal… and no one wants to see him go.There are plenty who’d like to see him sign for, say, eight years.That said, as of today, the defenseman still hasn’t signed. It’s not the end of the world, but for some, it’s still a cause for concern… Except that, according to Marco D’Amico, who talked about it on The Shaun Starr Show, there’s really nothing to worry about. Far from it:

“My feeling is that if Lane Hutson could sign a 16-year contract today, he would.

–

Marco D’Amico

https://youtu.be/q0D4D0nF3U4?si=2TpUvEpe_Bfok8rd&t=1455 [content-ads]What seems clear at the moment is that there’s no lack of desire for Hutson to stay in Montreal, far from it. The kid wants to be in town for many, many years to come… but his agent is making sure that the defenseman’s emotions don’t get the better of the rational aspect of the thing.We want to avoid that in a few years, for example, the defenseman gets frustrated at having a contract that’s ridiculously too low for what he brings to the ice.On theother hand, if Hutson really wants to sign a long contract right now, he’ll have to hurry: under the new collective agreement, a player will no longer be able to sign an eight-year contract extension: the maximum will be seven years.

However, just because Hutson wants to stay in Montreal doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to sign for eight years: he might prefer to sign several shorter contracts, too… especially if his agent sells him on the idea.We’ll see how this file develops, but don’t worry about the fact that the defender still doesn’t have a contract in his pocket. It’ll all work out eventually.[spacer title=’Overtime’]- Colleague Marc-Olivier Cook praised Zachary Bolduc’s shot on Tony Marinaro’s Sick Podcast last night.

– Jack Eichel’s future continues to be the talk of the town.

– I love it.