{"id":554916,"date":"2026-04-18T00:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554916\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:51:20","slug":"cole-hutson-names-his-welcome-to-the-nhl-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554916\/","title":{"rendered":"Cole Hutson names his \u2018Welcome to the NHL\u2019 moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cole Hutson<\/a> showed a lot of promise during his 14-game stint with the Washington Capitals<\/a> at the end of the 2025-26 season. The 19-year-old rookie defenseman, who had just finished up his sophomore season at Boston University, posted 10 points (3g, 7a) in his limited run in DC, and NHL EDGE tracking statistics<\/a>\u00a0suggested he\u2019s already one of the fastest players in the league.<\/p>\n

While Hutson had vast success and teased what could be a superstar future, he still had moments where he felt very much like a teenager, fresh out of the NCAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne opportunity comes to mind,\u201d Hutson said during his Breakdown Day interview at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. \u201cCharlie Coyle reverse hit me, and that was kind of like my \u2018Welcome to the league\u2019 moment. How big, and, like, I don\u2019t even think he saw me. I think he just shrugged me off, and it felt like a train hit me.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the guys are a lot bigger (than in college), but I love that part of the game. I love being physical. And regardless, if he\u2019s going to hit me, I\u2019m going to try and give it back to him later in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being only 175 pounds, Hutson was not shy to throw his body around or get physical during his time in the NHL. One of his biggest hits was a chokeslam-esque takedown<\/a> of Team USA hero Jack Hughes during his second pro game against New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Regardless, one of Hutson\u2019s main goals this summer will be to continue growing into and filling out his body so he can handle a full 84-game NHL season next fall. He\u2019ll spend the offseason training with brothers Lane<\/a> (a defenseman for the Montreal Canadiens<\/a>), Quinn (a winger currently in the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> organization), and Lars (a 17-year old defenseman in the USHL).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just getting bigger, stronger, faster,\u201d Hutson said. \u201cKind of the usual things I try to do every summer as a smaller guy. It\u2019s something that I\u2019m going to need to work on if I want to stay at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutson also learned during his month in the league that, in his words, he needed to respect the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think players are so good you can\u2019t anticipate what they\u2019re doing because they\u2019ll outsmart you, just like you\u2019re thinking outsmarting them,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt happens so fast, and (I learned) just how quick the game goes by.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how he\u2019d sum up his time in Washington, Hutson, who will likely be rooming with Ryan Leonard next season<\/a>, had nothing but positive things to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of fun,\u201d Hutson said. \u201cJust getting to know everyone in the locker room and, yeah, learn[ing] so much so fast about the game and how hard it really is to play at this level consistently. So just a head start for next year. Hopefully I\u2019m ready to stay in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cole Hutson showed a lot of promise during his 14-game stint with the Washington Capitals at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5],"class_list":{"0":"post-554916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116422972797636114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}