With the regular season over and the U18 tournament underway, the hockey world is starting to talk more and more about the draft. Prospects are in their final moments to make their mark, and teams are starting to have their targets in mind.
Barring the most titanic turn of events, Macklin Celebrini will be the first to hear his name called… and then the suspense will begin.
For the Habs, we’ll find out on May 7 where the club will draft in the first round. That said, the club has a total of 13 picks, so it must be thinking beyond the top-5.
They have the Jets’ first-round pick, as well as the Avalanche’s second-round pick (but not their own).
According to Gabriel Foley, who works for RecruitScouting and ProHockeyRumors, there’s constant talk that the Habs would like to select Cole Hutson, Lane’s brother.
You have to take this information with a grain of salt, considering that Foley isn’t necessarily a reputable informant, but he’s steeped in college hockey circles and seems to know what’s going on in the U.S. development program, where Hutson is currently playing.
And in fact, it’s not completely crazy to think it’s true. We know that the current management of the Habs like to surround themselves with people they know, and above all, they seem to want to capitalize on this familiarity, as Kent Hughes said recently.
You need look no further than last year to find such a situation, when the Habs drafted Florian Xhekaj. They could do it again this season, this time reuniting the Hanson Hutson brothers.
For those less familiar with Cole Hutson, he’s a left-handed defenseman who isn’t the biggest, but has excellent offensive instincts and scores by the ton. Sounds familiar…
Lane’s brother is well on his way to becoming the defenseman with the most career points in the U.S. development program. He has already overtaken not only his brother, but also Adam Fox and Cam York, who are fairly well-known names.
Steven Ellis, who covered the U.S. match of the day at the U18 Championship, thought he looked a lot like his brother.
Unlike Florian Xhekaj, however, the Tricolore will have to spend more than a fourth-round pick to get their hands on Cole Hutson. The latter should be drafted somewhere between the end of the first round or the beginning of the second round.
The Jets’ pick could therefore be used to draft Hutson, because in the second round, the Habs only have the Avalanche’s pick, which will be towards the end of the second round. Remember that the Habs traded their own second-round pick to the Coyotes in the Christian Dvorak trade, a pick that has since come a long way and now belongs to the Jets following the Pierre-Luc Dubois transaction.
We’ll have to wait and see, but there seems to be interest in reuniting another pair of brothers with the Habs. And with Quinn Hutson, Lane and Cole’s older brother, currently a free agent, one almost wonders if three of them could be in the Montreal organization before long…
In Brief
– Situations to watch in Vegas and Dallas.
– Great news.
– Speaking of the draft.
– That’s right.
– Already 14 years since the Halak spring.
– The MLB sensation of the moment is Mason Miller.
More must-reads: