Hughes, LaCombe’s new deals should raise the price for Hutson
Young players are getting big bucks these days, and it could lead to a significant raise for the reigning Calder Trophy winner.
Coming off an impressive rookie season, there’s a lot of excitement surrounding Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson. The skill and creativity he brings to the table helped the Canadiens make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, bringing home some individual hardware as well. However, heading into the final year of his entry-level contract, many wonder how much money the Holland, Mich. native will make in his new deal.
We’ve already seen some other notable young blueliners make bank this week. The New Jersey Devils have locked up Luke Hughes, signing him to a seven-year contract extension that carries a $9 million AAV. On Wednesday, the Anaheim Ducks signed Jackson LaCombe to an eight-year extension, with a $9 million cap hit as well.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, David Pagnotta joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to explain how the recent extensions for LaCombe and Hughes will make Hutson a very rich person.
David Pagnotta: I know they’ve been going back and forth for some time. The hope was to get something done by the start of the season, but that big ticket, that big deal I think is going to affect things a little bit differently than the Canadiens may have expected. Everybody wants to take a little sliver of a deal in Montreal to make everything work…I’m sure Lane Hutson will take a little bit less, but his little bit less may be a few hundred thousand as opposed to anything overly significant….This is going to be an interesting situation for the Canadiens and their fan base, because after looking at that number in Anaheim, $9 million, you’re probably looking at above that for Lane Hutson, if they’re going full term. So, is it between nine and $9-$9.5 million? Is it beyond? I’m sure some of the consideration is going to be there, based on what happened with those Kaprizov talks. Getting that $17 million wasn’t necessarily about just getting a bigger number. It was evening things out as the cap continues to increase year after year, after year.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…