ST. PAUL, Minn. — John Hynes was several hours away from coaching his final home game for the Minnesota Wild before the Olympic break, before which all the Wild’s Olympians would be honoured — including himself as part of the coaching staff for Team USA and his general manager, Bill Guerin, who built Team USA.
On the other side of the ice during Monday’s ceremony, Montreal Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson would be preparing to face one of his idols: Quinn Hughes, the player who showed him he could thrive in the NHL at his size despite everyone telling him he couldn’t.
Hynes was asked what he tells his team when preparing to face Hutson, and though he didn’t know it at the time, he foreshadowed a scenario that would be almost perfectly recreated a few hours later. After, of course, that ceremony honouring the Wild’s Olympians — a tournament Hutson will obviously not be attending because Guerin did not take Hutson, in large part because he already had Hughes.
“We have a guy who’s like that with Hughes, so it kind of helps us a little bit,” said Hynes, who, like Hutson, is a Boston University alumnus. “Lane, he’s a great offensive defenceman. He can skate. In the offensive zone, he’s very mobile, he can beat you one-on-one, he’s going to run the line, he’s going to cut back, he’s going to spin, he’s going to be down the back side. He’s a very active player.
“So I think when you know that, when you go out to the points, you have to be in control. You have to take away time and space, but it’s probably not just going to be a shot or a puck rim back down. There’s going to be some kind of spin or movement. He has the ability to create some plays that other people don’t make, so you need to know his individual tendencies. But on the other side of that, you need to make sure you’re strong and locked up away from the puck. So whoever’s defending him, when he’s moving and doing his thing, that’s one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is the guys away from the puck have to be alert because he can spin and turn a play at any time.”
Danila Yurov is No. 22 for the Wild in the following clip, and he bites on exactly what Hynes warned Hutson can do. And the closest player to Ivan Demidov here is No. 43 for the Wild: Hughes.
His Canadiens teammates after the game were obviously impressed with what Hutson did to tie the game with 17 seconds left in the second period, to create a play other people don’t make, as Hynes said.
“It was an amazing pass,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “I think Lane kind of picks him up when he hesitates at the blue line there. Demi really finds a good seam for him. It was a good play by both of them.”
Here is that moment. Demidov is barely on the screen. He’s back at the red line, but you can see Hutson look that way.
“I think it’s just a special play by a special player in a big moment,” Canadiens defenceman Noah Dobson said. “He shimmied a guy down the wall, beat the guy, and then to find a seam, there’s a lot of sticks you have to pass through and he put it right in the wheelhouse for Demi.”
Here is that seam Hutson had to find amid that sea of sticks and obstacles.
Hutson gets up to face Hughes. He considers Hughes to be a player who helped him reach the NHL because he gave Hutson belief.
The reality is Hughes has always believed in Hutson.
In March 2024, as Hutson was on the verge of making his NHL debut after completing his sophomore season at BU, Hughes gave Hutson’s ability to transition into the NHL a big endorsement ahead of a Canadiens game in Vancouver.
“It’s not about how good he is at 20 or 21,” Hughes said then, “it’s about how good he is at 25, 26.”
Little did Hughes know then that Hutson at 21 would be pretty special.
“It’s pretty impressive, just how quickly he’s been able to do it as well. I mean, he’s one of the best D in the game, definitely from the offensive standpoint,” Hughes said Monday morning before facing the Canadiens. “He’s got a lot of hockey sense. He’s got passion — just watching the clips of him on the ice 30 minutes before everyone else. I’m always seeing that.
“There’s obviously a reason he’s such a good player, because he’s so competitive and he’s gotten better over the years. What is he, 21? 22? He’s not the full picture yet, and he’s just got to keep getting better, off the ice, on the ice, as a person and growing. It’ll be fun to see him at 25, 26, 27.”
The notion that Hutson is a defensive liability at his size is something Hughes had to battle early in his career as well, and something he has largely dispelled despite a difficult game defensively against the Canadiens.
Hutson’s offensive ability means he gets used in offensive situations, especially with how many defensive assignments Mike Matheson is tasked with. That usage is not because Hutson can’t defend; it’s because the Canadiens are so much better off when Hutson has the puck in the offensive zone.
Hughes has come out the other side of those biased perceptions of his game because he is listed at 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, considerably heavier than Hutson’s listed 5-foot-9 and 162 pounds.
He has little doubt Hutson will come out the other side of it as well. Perceptions can only last so long when results run counter to them for long enough.
“It’s always that you want to prove people wrong and be trusted. I mean, I just think as he continues to grow and get better, he’ll cancel all that noise out,” Hughes said. “I feel like every small, young D has to go through that, and he’s doing a great job. He’s playing plus hockey right now. You’ve just got to keep going. He’s been fun to watch.”
Perhaps four years from now, when Hutson is 25 and Hughes is 30, they can even be teammates at the 2030 Olympics. By that time, we will have a fuller picture of what Hutson can become, and this notion that a winning team can’t have two similarly undersized offensive dynamos on the blue line will have been proven to be outdated.
