Elliotte Friedman's honest Lane Hutson admission suddenly changes the Norris conversation
Lane Hutson has Martin St-Louis watching a young blue-liner turn playoff buzz into a real long-term Norris conversation.
That's the real takeaway from Elliotte Friedman's latest comments, and it lands a lot harder because he admitted Hutson did not make his final 5 on this year's Norris Trophy ballot.
Friedman didn't try to soften it.
He said the Norris vote was brutal this season, then followed that with the kind of statement that can shift how fans and voters frame a player going forward.
This wasn't polite praise.
It sounded like a respected insider watching a defenseman force his way into the league's top tier in real time.
For Montreal, that matters. Hutson is no longer just an exciting piece on the blue line or a rookie who can move the puck.
He's becoming a player people around the league expect to carry major hardware one day.
And when that kind of talk starts coming from Friedman, it stops sounding like local hype and starts sounding like the next phase of a star player's rise.
Friedman's admission changed the story
The strongest part of the exchange wasn't the confession about the ballot.
It was what came next. Friedman said this might be the last year for 10 years that Hutson misses the finalist group.
That's a massive statement for any defenseman, let alone one still building his place in Montreal's core.
It also tells you how quickly Hutson's impact is changing the conversation around him.
The timing is what pushed it over the top. Hutson had just put together a 2-assist playoff performance in Montreal's 6-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres, and the eye test backed up every word.
He wasn't just picking up points. He was controlling pace, slipping out of pressure, and dictating shifts from the back end.
Those are the details that separate a productive defenseman from one who can run a game.
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That's why this feels bigger than one hot night or one podcast clip.
It points to where Hutson is headed if St-Louis keeps leaning on him in big spots.
Montreal still has work to do before talk turns into trophies.
But when a veteran voice like Friedman says multiple Norris wins are on the table, the standard changes right away.
Now Hutson isn't being measured against rookie expectations. He's being measured against the best defensemen in hockey.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 10, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Cutter Gauthier | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Alex Newhook | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alexander Killorn | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Beckett Sennecke | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirby Dach | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ian Moore | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||