What’s REALLY Happening With Lane Hutson’s Contract? | Montreal Canadiens

What’s REALLY Happening With Lane Hutson’s Contract? | Montreal Canadiens

back with a brand new week. Uh, welcome back. Thank you so much for your loyal support. I think I could speak for Marco Demo right here that we it goes beyond uh being just appreciative. And what’s interesting too, we have a lot to get to. Um, and I want to start here. It looks as though and I’m maybe guilty of putting the cart before the horse, but I’m optimistic that the live in-house version of this tandem right here coming to an establishment near you on some HAB game days. Marco Demo, welcome back to a brand new week. What is good, brother? I have no idea what you’re talking about. Okay, then. Just leave it all up to me. Um, uh, things are good. Things are good. I guess uh, you know, Habs fans are starting to to get back into it now. I think uh, training camp is exactly a week away at this point. So, you’re gonna A week Wow. Sorry, guys. A month away. I didn’t want to give everybody false hope. A month away. Uh, yeah. And uh you know I think this is the time of year now where you start seeing players coming back to town. Some never left of course and it really is the most exciting time uh you know after a summer of of you know unfortunate inactivity not from the Canadian standpoint but just NHL wise. So getting back into the rhythm of it, GMs obviously in conversation, roster decisions coming, rookie camps. Uh there’s a lot to there’s a lot to unpack and we’re going to we’re going to do that for you guys. Yeah. And don’t forget, um, new episodes drop weekdays at 10:00 a.m. And this week, uh, you can look forward to, uh, us expanding on Marco’s story that broke last week with Lane Hudson and contract negotiations. We’ll get into Kirby Doc’s rehab, on time, behind schedule. We’ll get into Ivon Deidov and what we think the Canadians have in have up their sleeves for this uh, young man ready for his first full NHL season. the RFA market resetting in the National Hockey League and David Rybacker NHL ready. All coming up this week. New episodes drop weekdays at 10:00 a.m. In the meantime, you can help us by supporting our sponsors like Little Bear, little Bearonline.com. 10% off your first order with promo code order 1. And you can use their subscription service for more savings and guaranteed delivery from Little Bear. Littlebearonline.com. Now, let’s get into the Lane Hudson negotiation. Marco uh will pin this story at rg.org with the headline that reads update on Hudson contract talks RFA market reset which we’ll get into and the Noah adopts comp. So right away um walk me through the mechanics of this story. Here we are with this out on August 18th and there still is a Lane Hudson without a contract. He was eligible to sign one on July 1st. Walk us through the mechanics. What’s going on? Well, just to be clear, he still he still has the last year of his current contract to to play out and then next like July 1st, 2026 is when it would expire. In the NHL, you’re able to to negotiate an extension as of the final year of your contract. You cannot do that before. So, uh, in the past, we’ve seen the Montreal Canadians get aggressive in that regard. uh signing Uriskovski uh on July 1st. Uh signing Kaden Ghoulie shortly after last summer uh I think it was a week later or two. So those two went longterm right away avoiding the possibility of an offer sheet this summer which is normal and at the time there was a few things that made it uh understandable. Uh however the market nowadays has changed and there’s a lot that’s kind of changed and so we’ll get into it. Um, first and foremost, the salary cap is going up, right? And it’s not going up, you know, by one or two or three million. It’s going up by $9 million a year. Yeah. We’re talking about 9% of the salary cap going whoop. That’s a lot. And if you’re an NHL player right now, unless you’re in like a Noah Dobson situation or a free agent like a Mitch Mner, you know, going eight years is a risky venture because what are you giving up in potential earnings, right? And a lot of people would be like, “Well, they’re millionaires. Who cares?” Right? But this hockey first of all has a very short window of opportunity and there’s a whole lot of risk involved. So, yes, there is the element of giving them security. But then, you know, Sean, we talked about this before. If you’re a defenseman making $8 million right now, uh that used to be first pair defenseman money about five years ago. Now, it’s, you know, second pair defenseman money, like high-end second pair defense. We saw Ivan Provarov sign for 8.5 this summer and within three years that will realistically be second pair defenseman money, right? Like regular second pair defenseman money like like we saw with Gabricov Provarov, those kinds of contracts, right? And so when you’re looking at building out your roster and you’re an agent on the other end and the agent’s like, “Well, maybe we don’t necessarily want to go too hard too quick.” That’s exactly what’s going on with Lane Hudson right now. And so his camp and obviously Canadians constant conversation. And I think that’s the thing we need to make clear. They’re they’re they’re in conversation. Things are going very smoothly. They’re exchanging ideas. There’s multiple scenarios on the table. They’re looking to see how other negotiations play out before they lock down on on an idea because there’s one thing to set the trend and there’s another thing to follow a trend. And a lot of people are waiting to see exactly what’s coming when it comes to R RFAS and we’re going to get into that in a in a later episode. But when it comes to Hudson’s situation, nothing to worry about from what I’m being told. Who do you think is driving the conversation? Is it Hudson’s agent? Is it, you know, I mean, by all accounts, what we know of Lane Hudson, and we’ll talk about this as it relates to Ivan Deidov because I think they’re just brothers from another mother in terms of he can’t keep these guys off the ice. They share that commonality. But in terms of driving the conversation, wants and needs, you know, if Ken Hughes could have it his way, would he already have his player under contract, locked in for for eight years maxed out, or or are we playing the 9% salary cap increase game, and maybe Hudson’s agent is trying to squeeze every drop, financially speaking, out of the Canadians? How do you think it it goes down behind closed doors? I mean, you we’ll never really know exactly, but from what I was told, um, yeah, there’s no one really driving the conversations. It’s a very amicable back and forth. What do you think of this? This is our thoughts on that. More, you know, along those lines, right? Where generally speaking, you know, when when people think when people have no news, they think there’s no conversations. It’s quite the opposite. They’re they’re in constant communication. And it’s like the the idea is there’s no immediate rush to get something done right now simply because we’re entering kind of a new era for signing contracts. But when it comes to Lane, you know, you also have to factor in comparables, right? So before the comparables were Jake Sanderson and uh Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, Kale Mar, those guys signing their contracts outside of their entry-le their entry- level deals. Those were the comparables and they all had roughly like anywhere between I believe 8.6 and 9.6% of the salary cap. So you know if the salary cap’s going to be uh 105 million in the summer of 2026 2027 well 9% of that is about 9.1 9.05 mil. So you’d be looking at anywhere between 9 to 9.5. Now, you know, a lot of people are going to say, and I think this is the key that we want to get to, is what about no adoptions contract? So, when you look at no adoptions contract, every single uh person in the league basically thought, huh, there’s your framework for the for the Lane Hudson deal. And although I believe Bla Hudson will be a more like more of an elite defenseman uh in his prime, they’re not signing at the in the same kind of scenario. Like it’s not apples to apples in this case. And I’ll give you a reason why. Yeah. In the NHL, there are when you negotiate with a player, there are what you call restricted free agent years. So when a player doesn’t have full autonomy and can’t negotiate with other teams and then you have unrestricted free agent years and those are more valuable because you’re buying a player’s uh ability to hit the market and and you know try to score. And so when you’re a young player coming out of your entry- level contract, like for example, Lane Hudson, Lane Hudson at the end of his contract still has five years of RFA eligibility whereas Noah Dobson only had one. Ah, right. Right. And he had arbitration and he had uh offer sheet eligibility. The two those two things Lane Hudson does not have leverage. Lane Hudson is what you call a 10.2C RFA. What does that mean in layman terms? It means that Lane Hudson did not will not have played three professional seasons by the time his contract ends because the first year he only played two games. The minimum to play a professional season is 10. So that means that he is ineligible for offer sheets next summer. Ineligible for arbitration. That takes away a lot of leverage. A lot of leverage because now all of a sudden it’s you can only play ball with the Canadians. Thankfully, and what we’ve heard and what we’ve seen, the negotiations have not been a strong armed scenario. It’s very much been a, “Hey buddy, hey buddy, let’s talk, let’s talk. This is what we’re thinking. This is what you’re thinking. You know, have you thought about this? What, you know, would you consider that?” They’re just shooting ideas at the board and seeing what they’re comfortable with and then they’ll find a middle. So it is an evolving conversation, but Lane Hudson’s camp outside of you know amicable negotiation from this kind of situation don’t have the same amount of leverage that a guy like Noah Dobson who was one year away from free agency and had arbitration, right? So, he could have just gone to arbitration, taken the one-year deal, and walked himself straight into free agency, and there would have been nothing that the Islanders can do except kind of trade him at deadline, right? So, that’s why they traded him with an extension that was a signin trade so that they can recoup the maximum amount of assets. And by doing so, he basically picked a spa, which is Montreal. And we’ve seen this before. Jacob Trouba did it when he left Winnipeg to go to to the New York Rangers. Yeah. Different also too with his wife being a medical doctor and another example there for her. Yeah. Another example would be Seth Jones, you know, Seth Jones forcing a trade basically from Columbus to Chicago. That was the same concept. So there was more leverage there. So when we talk about Hudson as an un as a restricted free agent with no ARB rights and no offer sheet eligibility, his leverage is on ice play, which already is phenomenal. I I don’t think we really have to argue this, but in the in the process of a negotiation, because there’s no impending threat of an offer sheet, no impending threat of anything sabotaging the conversation from the outside, you can take your time. And that’s why you haven’t heard news on this yet, but I can tell you from my knowledge on the situation, both sides want to get a deal done. Both sides would prefer a deal be done sooner than later. Exactly. And now it’s simply just a question of term and it’s going to be a question of salary and you know where does the market go and I think you know it’s a little bit more complicated than just give him eight years just give him eight years and 9 million and he’ll be happy. It’s a little bit more complicated than that. Well that’s why I think sometimes you know we talk about leverage and I think you outline leverage in this situation between Noah Doppson and what he accomplished before the age of 30. the position he plays, uh, his role on a team versus, you know, what Lane Hudson had accomplished in his first season, six goals, 66 assists, uh, rookie of the year, you know, getting national acclaim really from from from this and especially hyperfocused in this market. Um, I never got the sense that Lane Hudson was, you know, from my very distant perspective, was driven by the dollar, was driven by maxing out. He doesn’t come across to me that way, right? I think that’s the very safe read for most of us. But on the other side, his agent can be that guy. Lane Hudson can concentrate on being a hockey player. And the leverage that I think he has today, and I just don’t see him or his camp using it, is he is already a darling of this market. Like it in a weird way, it reminds me of what of of PK Suban’s time. He was a lot of people’s favorite player and the organization didn’t care really about feelings. It was a very cutthroat business type of decision to change the the dynamic inside that locker room. Right. Lane Hudson is not PK Suban in that type of conversation. But the leverage he has is he’s already a lot of people’s favorite player and I think his agent has to use that to squeeze the dollar because I’m a big buyer. Marco, I do not believe in salary cap structure. You know, does have to fall under Nick Suzuki? He puts up hypothetically makes no sense with the salary cap going here. We’ll we’ll talk about that right now. This fix this idea that anyone cannot earn more than Nick Suzuki is finished. Exactly. Is absolutely finished. I mean, forget that. that those contracts, Slipkovski, Cawfield, Ghouie, Suzuki, those are going to be the backbone of this team being able to compete in in such an incredible way because they’re going to have most of their core locked down for 20% less than what their market value is worth, right? Contract, bro. The Ghoulie contract’s bonkers. I love it. I was told by an NHL executive that Ghoulie’s contract is the biggest deal on the Montreal Canadians, and I was like, more of a steal than your is than Nick Suzuki. And the the uh message that I received back was if Ghouie can stay healthy that is a top pair quality defenseman. Yeah. For 5.5 million and that contract only started a month ago. Like is it better or is is it as good or better than Max Patrick’s sweetheart deal? Because that’s what I’ve been saying on this channel with you. Max Pat’s deal was was silly. That was the 4.5 million that was silly at the time. Oh, getting close to 40 goals for for that for that salary. That was great. And even even I’d add even Gallagher had a really good deal in that time as well and then he potted his 30 goals. Yeah. Well, I I feel like that sentence that you just uttered is the answer to most of the Canadians woes over the last five, six years. But I digress. So when it comes to when you look at a guy like Lane Hudson, you look at him trying to fit into that. I I’m like you. I don’t I think the Canadians have created a culture of people want to be around and when you want to be around, you take a little less. And so I could tell you from my conversations that we know that Cfield took less. Caulfield, it was important for Cfield to not earn more than Nick as a form of of of respect. So he took a little less. Same applied with your iceky. Slowsky theoretically coming off a 50 point season as a first overall pick on an eight-year deal could have probably pushed for eight times eight, but again decided to take to fall in line and take a little less than Nick. I don’t necessarily think that’s going to happen with Hudson, but like my feeling, and this is not based on information, but my feeling is I feel like Lane Hudson’s going to play ball simply just because he is obsessed with this market in a good way. Like he loves Montreal. He loves you, the fans. Like, I can’t express this to you more than this story. when I interviewed Lane uh three months after his draft uh in 2022 uh you know I was just we had spoken at the draft but just like he gets settled at BEu we have a conversation and he told me that the the the highlight of of his of his hockey career was hearing his name called out at the Bell Center and the fans cheering so loudly you think he scored a goal right and he said to me I can’t wait to come and actually play there and hear that on a regular basis. And you know, when he won the rookie of the year this year, I asked him again, you know, like, what do you you do you see yourself here long term? Do you see yourself here, you know, do you see yourself fitting in this structure for the for the long haul? And there was like no hesitation, big smile on his face, like we got something special here and I want to see it through. And I think that’s the sentiment that a lot of players have right now. So, if I had to tell you my my personal take, like if I had to venture, I would venture to believe that Lane would like to would love to lock in long term, but it’s the business that that you have to factor in. And I’m sure they’ll get it done. I mean, what are we really going to be talking about here? I think everyone’s very comfortable with a $9 million deal over eight years, right? Well, does the market, you know, make it so that it becomes, you know, 10, you know, you don’t know. Or do you just take a year less uh and the AEV stays put? Like there’s there’s all these kind of conversations. So, when it comes to Lane, there is an absolute desire, pardon me, desire to stay. When it comes to the Canadians, I think it’s a no-brainer. It’s an absolute like they absolutely want him to stay. And with the acquisition of Noah Dobson, you know, you’d really have two premier defensemen at that position. Plus, you know, a luxury number three defenseman and Kaden Gulie, you’d be set for a while. It’s August 18th. Does this deal get done before opening night? Regular season. Regular season. What’s your educated guess? I think that they probably like to. I mean, it h it almost kind of feels like they not they have to. I will say one thing. I don’t think this is going to be in November. You know what I I don’t think this is going to drag. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I I reached out and did my homework on this because I don’t want it I don’t want to get to September and people be like, “Well, you didn’t sign a contract. There’s there’s problems. I don’t want to see the tabloids with like latest Hudson and Canadians, you know, not uh not seeing eye to eye.” When it’s actually not even close to I’ll be honest, I I’m kind of surprised that it’s not done yet. You know, I I appreciate your major like what we know about Lane Hudson. He’s a he’s a rink junkie. Can’t stay off the ice. Why hasn’t he taken an eight times nine? Like, we’ll just talk about that. We’ll talk about that on next episode when we talk about the RFA market. But just a little bit of a teaser, Lane Hudson is the only big name that needs to sign a contract for next year. And let me tell you, everyone is looking at each other right now and waiting to see who’s going to blink. And I can’t wait to unpack that with you tomorrow. That’s a great tease, brother. Stay tuned tomorrow. Uh, we have weekday episodes drop Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. That’s Marco Deco. Follow him at Emma De Mo with RG Media. I’m Sean Star. Check back with us tomorrow at 10.

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What’s really happening with Lane Hutson’s contract and his future with the Montreal Canadiens? 🏒 In this video, Shaun Starr and Marco D’Amico dive deep into the latest updates, rumors, and speculation surrounding one of the Habs’ most exciting prospects.

➡️ Is Lane Hutson signing with the Canadiens sooner than expected?
➡️ What does his contract situation mean for the Habs rebuild?
➡️ How will Hutson impact the Canadiens’ blue line moving forward?

We break it all down with expert analysis, inside knowledge, and a fan-first perspective. If you’re a true Montreal Canadiens fan, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss!

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