The dollar amount is close, but the Montreal Canadiens and Lane Hutson need to overcome a philosophical hurdle
Emily Kaplan: “The NHL salary landscape is changing fast. Hearing Lane Hutson was willing to take an 8 year deal slightly less than Noah Dobson’s $9.5 million AAV but it didn’t get done on the Canadiens end. That was before the market reset with Luke Hughes and Jackson LaCombe deals last week.”
Marco D’Amico: “There’s a reason all this information is being leaked today, with tough negotiations over the weekend and today’s deadline for deferred money contracts. Told contract still attainable under $10M over 8 years.”
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Can You Take the Cap Higher? episode on Lane Hutson, the Montreal Canadiens, and the RCA set up in a contract extension.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“You want to continue the Lane Hutson conversation. We talked about him for a while, last spot, naturally, with the Luke Hughes deal getting done. Then Jackson Lacombe ponies up for eight times nine in Anaheim.
He’s a player where it’s a little bit unique going into the final year of his entry-level deal. He’s not really going to have much by way of leverage. Can’t be given an offer sheet, doesn’t have arbitration rights yet. It’s the best form of leverage that he has is understanding that the Montreal Canadiens are a much better team when he’s in the lineup versus when he is not.
Friedman: “His play, his play is his best leverage.”
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Bukauskas: “Right. Exactly. Coming off a Calder Trophy record-setting year and all intents and purposes, the idea to build on it this year. You had the line about seeing something around eight times nine-ish kind of being the thought. Few days more to digest and talk to people around the league. What do you feel about it all?
Friedman: “Well, the first thing I think about it is that this negotiation, to me, compares to Kirill Kaprizov in one way, and that is, that it got really emotional and everybody needs a timeout. Because I think this negotiation has gotten very emotional, and I think everybody needs a timeout.
Now, the obvious difference, and you kind of alluded to it there is there, is that they’re not in the same place in their careers. Kaprizov was headed into unrestricted free agency. Hutson is far from there, and as you mentioned, he’s limited in what he can do for the next couple years in terms of leverage. He doesn’t really have a lot of it, aside from his great play. Which is very important. But I do think that in this particular case, everybody kind of has to step back into their corners and see where it goes. And when Bill Guerin did that, eventually he found a way to get Kaprizov done.
So, I mean, we’ll see. I’m doubling down on the eight times nine-ish deal. I think that, I think they’ve both sides were in this neighborhood. As you can imagine, the Canadians are a bit lower, I think, than eight point times nine in terms of what the hit would be. And I think Hudson’s representatives and the player were above eight times nine.
I think that the, I think philosophy is a big, is maybe the biggest hurdle here. Like, I don’t think the Canadians any problem with structure bonuses. I don’t, I don’t think that was the issue.
It was interesting. There were some articles in, by some media who cover the Canadians about the RCA, which is the Canadian tax benefit. And basically that the best way to explain what an RCA is, is that, it was basically created by a Revenue Canada for high salaried employees. And you know another way to explain it, sorry, and basically, while it wasn’t necessarily created for athletes, it has become used by a lot of athletes who play in Canada. Whether they be hockey players or baseball players. And if you followed some of the news recently, the more money that’s been put into them, the more that Revenue Canada has tried to challenge them. They did it with Jose Batista. They did it with John Tavares. And so far to this point, the athletes have won those particular cases.
But you know, basically the advantage tax-wise, is that you withdraw the funds over time and at your discretion, rather receive them personally, all at once. That is the simplest way to explain the benefit here.
And the Canadians have discussed this with Hutson and his representatives. I believe, also deferred money came up, and I don’t think Hudson’s camp was as interested in that. To this point in time, they have not agreed with the philosophy of the RCA, and I think that’s the number one reason why the deal hasn’t gotten done. Is that they do not, at this point in time, share the vision that the Canadians have with that set up in the contract. And, you know, I think as a result, these talks came to a standstill.
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I think that, you know, I actually it was interesting. Somebody disagreed with my idea that they come 95 yards and they were at the five-yard line. And sometimes the five last five yards are harder to get, the hardest to get. And that’s fine. I think that, you know every, I could have flaws in what I’m thinking. But I do think the two sides have come a long way here from initial offers, some of the conversations they’ve had.
Like, like, the base numbers are in the ballpark, and because of the philosophical disagreement here, they have not been able to close the deal. Now, I’ll be honest, right now I have no idea where this is going to go. Somebody is going to have to change their mind at this point in time for this to get done this way. But we’ll see. I do think, like Kaprizov, it’s going to take everybody, kind of going back to their corners and seeing if there’s a way that they can break this log jam.
But I just, in terms of overall dollars, I think the two sides were pretty close, but there’s a philosophical hurdle here that has to get jumped over.
Bukauskas: “And that RCA stuff. I mean, that’s that can’t be something that is written into a contract, can it? Like, is that more just something that a player, in theory, would have to voluntarily go, ‘Yeah, I’m going to decide to do it that way.’ And it’s more so just the team suggesting that as a, as an option, to try to maximize what they ultimately bring in.
Friedman: “That’s, that you’re pretty, I mean, you’re pretty much right. But, you know, I’ll also say this, there, you know, like, there are some agents, like, there’s always the talk about the taxes, right? And I, I think it’s a very real thing. But some of the agents who are a bit more pro-Canada, I would say, just for lack of a better term, they talk about this thing, the RCA, as something you can use to mitigate the damage, right? So it’s not only the teams, sometimes the agents will say to their client, ‘we can do this in order for you to eliminate some of those disadvantages.’”
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