NHL Rumors: The Latest on a Lane Hutson Extension

Where do things stand with a Lane Hutson contract extension?

The Shaun Staar Show: Marco D’Amico, when asked about what is going on with a contract extension for Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Starr: “Walk me through the mechanics of this story. Here we are with this out on August 18th, and there still is Lane Hudson without a contract. He was eligible to sign one on July 1st. Walk us through the mechanics. What’s going on.

D’Amico: “Well, just to be clear, he still, he still has the last year of his current contract to play out. And then next, like July 1st 2026, is when it would expire. In the NHL, you’re able to negotiate an extension as of the final year of your contract. You cannot do that before.

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So in the past, we’ve seen the Montreal Canadiens get aggressive in that regard. Signing Juraj Slafkovsky on July 1st. Signing Kaiden Guhle shortly after last summer, I think it was a week later or two. So those two went long-term right away, avoiding the possibility of an offer sheet this summer. Which is normal, and at the time, there was a few things that made it understandable.

However, the market nowadays has changed, and there’s a lot that’s kind of changed. And so we’ll get into it. First and foremost, the salary cap is going up, right? And it’s not going up, you know, by one or two or 3 million, it’s going up by $9 million a year. We’re talking about 9% of salary cap going (up). That’s a lot.

And if you’re an NHL player right now, unless you’re in like a Noah Dodson situation, or a free agent like a Mitch Marner, you know, going eight years is a risky venture, because what are you giving up in potential earnings, right? And a lot of people would be like, ‘Wow, they’re millionaires. Who cares, right?’ But this hockey, first of all, has a very short window of opportunity, and there’s a whole lot of risk involved.

So yes, there is the element of giving them security. But then, you know, Sean, we talked about this before, if you’re a defenseman making $8 million right now, that used to be first-pair defenseman money about five years ago. Now it’s, you know, second pair defenseman money, like high-end second pair defense, when we saw Ivan Provorov sign for 8.5 (million) this summer.  And within three years, that will realistically be second pair of defenseman money, right? Like, regular second-pair defenseman money, like, like we saw with Gavrikov, Provorov, those kinds of contracts, right?

And so when you’re looking at building out your roster, and you’re an agent on the other end, and the agent’s like, ‘well, maybe we don’t necessarily want to go too hard, too quick.’ That’s exactly what’s going on with Lane Hudson right now.

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And so his camp, and obviously Canadians, constant conversation. And I think that’s the thing we need to make clear. They’re in conversation. Things are going very smoothly. They’re exchanging ideas. There’s multiple scenarios on the table. They’re looking to see how other negotiations play out before they lock down on an idea. Because there’s one thing to set the trend and there’s another thing to follow a trend, and a lot of people are waiting to see exactly what’s coming, when it comes to RFAs and we’re going to get into that in a later episode. But when it comes to Hutson situation, nothing to worry about from what I’m being told.”

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