As the Montreal Canadiens continue their battle to win the last universal card in the Eastern Conference, General Manager (GM) Kent Hughes will need to start looking ahead. Lane Hutson will be in the final year of next season’s NHL entry-level contract (ELC).
Related: Montreal Canadians Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson will change the team’s offense
This gave Hughes a tough decision: Wait until the summer of 2026 to sign his young star defender for a postponement or jump in, trying to sign his deal this summer, by then, he will be eligible and as of July 1, he will be eligible. For Canadians and their salary cap management, they move forward, locking his biggest interest into long-term trading.
Canadians’ salary caps in the future
The salary cap will increase from the current $88.5 million to $95.5 million this offseason. The cap plans rose from the total this season to $113.5 million in just three seasons, an increase of $25 million. This is important because players’ salaries will rise rapidly during the season. This means that it would be useless to take the salary directly as a comparison. The 2024-25-year average annual value (AAV) cap is $7 million, accounting for 7.91% of the cap. When the cap is $113.5 million, the same contract will be 6.17%, equivalent to $5.5 million in AAV.
This is why players use CAP percentages when using Complables, and Hutson is not an exception to that rule. Obviously, Canadians have internal cap restrictions. Patrik Laine is the highest paid striker, but his deal was inherited from Columbus blue jacket. Essentially, he is a Montreal-occupied hat dump that seems good to Canadians. However, looking at the main contracts signed during Hughes’ tenure shows that the Nick Suzuki contract ($7.75 billion AAV) is a set one, as no one signed internally the salary cap exceeds his salary. The deals are contracts between Cole Caufield ($7.8 million AAV) and Juraj Slafkovsky ($7.6 million AAV). This means that all three of the Canadians’ three top players signed up for a deal of up to eight years, making Hughes’ hat flexibility significantly forward.
Compare Hutson’s next deal with Hughes and Fox
This offseason will be crucial for Montreal’s future success, not only because they will significantly pursue a tried-and-tested top six centers, but also because Hutson is becoming the cornerstone of the team’s offensive performance. That’s why a long-term contract of 21 years old has to be signed. If he was compared to Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox for playing style and influence, he might want to use their first contract extension as comparable.
When Quinn Hughes signed a six-year contract to pay him an average of $7.85 million to Vancouver Canucks, the cap was $81.5 million or 9.6% of the cap value at that time. Adam Fox won the Norris Trophy that season, with his current seven-year contract signing a $9.5 million AAV or 11.5% of the CAP value at the time. Both were shortened in Covid-19 in the 1921 season, with 40 points or 0.7 points per game on the 56-game schedule. Hutson is still in his rookie season, but his 51 points in 65 games have given him 0.78 points per game. Even if he didn’t get another point for the rest of the season, his work this season is comparable to Fox and Hughes’ support.
Canadians must focus on Hessen
Some would doubt whether he would be “loyal” and make a team-friendly deal, as Montreal “grabbed the opportunity” when he chose him in the 2022 NHL admission draft. But that may only have impact terms, because it is obvious that the current roster is building a culture when players want to stay in the club. However, his game is the main reason for the Canadian to succeed this season, as he far exceeded expectations, so much that he could shake Hughes’ future plans. While Canadians do need a center, they also expect they are looking for veteran defenders who can pair with Hutson, or someone who is likely to grow up with Hutson, both of whom will have a significant impact on the salary cap.
Some fans are looking to handle team-friendly AAVs within eight years, but this may be too friendly. Regarding the semester, he has the option to sign a five-year contract only. Why? Because after his five-year contract, he will be eligible for unlimited free agents and can sign another highly persistent contract, as Wyatt Johnson did with the Dallas Stars this season.
Further complicating matters is Montreal’s internal cap structure using Suzuki’s deal, which was 9.55% of the cap when he signed it in October, 2021. However, that percentage is very similar to Hughes’ cap percentage (9.6%) for his extension, so it could be a good basis for comparison (also because Hutson is not in the running for the Norris this season as Fox was at the time he signed.) So, using 9.55% as the can be compared and applied to the 2025-26 salary cap, which is the potential long-term contract for Canadians’ top power unit quarterback equals $9.12 million in AAV.
Hutson has several options: short-term, long-term, profitable or stable. Whatever he decides, he establishes himself as one of the most important offensive defenders in the league. When he ranked eighth among the NHL defensemen, he had shown that he belonged to the elite and was doing it as a rookie. Everything points to the next few years and he will only get better, so Hughes must sign his young defender to sign a long-term contract as soon as possible.
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