‘My boys are also Canadian’: Lane Hutson’s father reacts to son’s USA Olympic orientation snub
Last week saw USA Hockey host a training camp in preparation for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, with one of the more notable omissions from the camp being Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson, who many thought had a strong chance of making the roster after an electric rookie season in 2024-25.
While there were some questions about the snub from hockey fans, it wasn’t until Thursday that the conversation took off when Hutson’s father, Rob, commented on it on Recrutes Habscast.
"You never know what happens in the future. My boys are also Canadian."
Lane Hutson's father, Rob, on his son being snubbed from Team USA's Olympic summer camp.
Could you imagine…? 😳🇨🇦
(via: YT/Recrutes Habscast, @grantmccagg) pic.twitter.com/YHSU1ConcL
“You never know what happens in the future,” said Hutson. “My boys are also Canadian. So there is an absolute luxury there, and a lot of great players have been left off the selection for the Olympics and things like that. I think Brett Hull might have been one of them. He voted with his feet. He went from Canada to the US. There’s all types of scenarios that are, I wouldn’t say in play, but are possibilities.”
While Lane Hutson was born in Holland, Michigan, which gives him his American citizenship and is where his mother was also born, Rob was born in Bowsman, Manitoba, which leaves the door open for the possibility of playing for Team Canada.
However, it’s not nearly as easy of a process has Rob makes it out to be. In order for Lane to switch countries in the eyes of the International Ice Hockey Federation, he needs to either be a Canadian citizen (he’s not), have an international transfer approved at least four years prior to the tournament he wants to participate in (he hasn’t for this upcoming Olympic tournament), has lived in Canada for four consecutive years and only played competitive hockey in Canada in that time (he’s only lived in Montreal for over a year, and played for Boston University in 2024), or hasn’t played IIHF hockey for the USA in the past four years (he played for USA in the 2024 World Juniors).
Fun stuff here.
For anyone wondering: since Lane Hutson has already played for USA Hockey in IIHF competition (many, many times), here is how he'd be able to play for Canada internationally.
(don't count on it) https://t.co/NfnoLezxxq pic.twitter.com/PZfcS6cqww
While it is a possibility going forward, it’s not possible for the upcoming Olympics, and by the time the next international tournament comes around that he’d be able to, he’ll likely be good enough to make the United States team.
This is a process some players have gone through before. As Rob Hutson alluded to, Brett Hull played for the USA despite his father Bobby being a legendary Canadian, because he lived in the USA in his early years while Bobby played for the Chicago Blackhawks. A more recent example on the woman’s side is Hannah Miller, who was unable to play for the Canadian women’s team in the 2025 World Championship despite being Canadian because she had previously played for China at the 2022 Olympics after spending four seasons prior playing in China.
USA Hockey has been known to make some questionable selection choices for their rosters over the years, including Justin Abdelkader, David Backes, Brandon Dubinsky and Kyle Palmieri over Phil Kessel and Bobby Ryan at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, and Chris Kreider, Brock Nelson and Vincent Trocheck over Tage Thompson and Jason Robertson at the 4 Nations Faceoff in February.
Brock Faber, Adam Fox, Luke Hughes, Quinn Hughes, Noah Hanifin, Seth Jones, Jackson LaCombe, Charlie McAvoy, Brett Pesce, Neal Pionk, Jake Sanderson, Brady Skjei, Jaccob Slavin, Alex Vlasic and Zach Werenski were the 15 defensemen invited to the US training camp for the Olympics over Hutson.
Hutson had a stellar rookie campaign with the Canadiens, which saw him put up six goals and 60 assists for 66 points in 82 games. That performance earned him the Calder Trophy, and also tied him with Larry Murphy for most assists by a defenseman in their rookie season.