Re-draft 2022: Lane Hutson isn’t number one, says Scott Wheeler

Dose
Crédit: Anthony Cirelli and Lane Hutson battle for puck in Montreal Canadas game.

The Canadiens made a steal by picking up Lane Hutson with pick #62 in the 2022 draft. He could afford it because he had three top-33 picks, but still.#Today, it’s clear that no one in Montreal regrets that choice. After all, it’s hard to get better value for a second-round pick like that, and some clubs are going to be kicking themselves for a long time to come. But if we were to have fun re-drafting the 2022 draft, everyone would agree that Lane Hutson would jump several dozen spots, wouldn’t they? On that subject, Scott Wheeler, The Athletic’s prospect expert, played the game of re-drafting the 2022 draft three years later. First of all, we note that prospect Owen Beck is not in the top-32, but in the honorable mentions. It‘s also worth noting that the top spot doesn’t belong to a Canadiens player. It’s Logan Cooley, the Coyotes’ third overall pick and a Mammoth player in 2025, who’s in first place.[content-ads]In two full NHL seasons, Cooley hasn’t had a campaign with more points than Lane Hutson’s 66 as a rookie. And Hutson is a defenseman,but Cooley already has 45 NHL goals (39 more than the Canadiens’ defenseman) and he’s a first center, which has a lot of value in the NHL.If I had to choose between Nick Suzuki (early in his career) and Lane Hutson, for example… I’d take #14 ahead of Hutson.Cooley ranks ahead of Lane Hutson and Juraj Slafkovsky, who occupy the #2 and #3 spots in the expert’s rankings. I agree with Wheeler’s top-3.

[spacer title=’Overtime’]- Ahh, the famous letters published at 5am to announce a rebuild.

– Interesting.

– Nice.