Nobody saw this new Montreal Canadiens weapon coming

Lane Hutson spent this summer fixing the one gap in his game, an actual shot for the Montreal Canadiens.

He racked up 66 assists last season, more proof his game runs through his hands, not his shot.

Teams defending him assume the pass is coming every time, conceding lanes because his shot never scared anyone.

That might be changing. Video making the rounds this week shows Hutson snapping a slap shot with real pop behind it.

Is a pass-first defenseman really about to add a shot defenses have to respect? That question followed him all summer.

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Hutson scored 12 goals last season and chipped in three more during the playoffs for Montreal.

He was even sharper in the postseason, setting up 13 assists across those 19 playoff games.

Ivan Demidov faces the same pass-first question this summer

Hutson also logged 18 power play assists, more proof his fingerprints are all over that unit already.

He also finished the season with a plus-36 rating, hardly the mark of a defenseman who just racks up secondary helpers.

Montreal finished last season at 48-24-10 with a plus-27 goal differential, third in their division.

And he did all of it on a cap hit of just $950,000, a bargain for a top-pairing defenseman.

General manager Kent Hughes signed off on that value contract, and a more complete Hutson only makes it look better.

Ivan Demidov carries a similar profile, a rookie winger who posted 19 goals and 43 assists last season.

If Demidov also sharpens his shot this offseason, Montreal's top six gets even tougher to defend.

Defensemen who can pass and shoot are rare. If this holds up once pucks drop, that's a good problem for Martin St-Louis to have.

A better shot doesn't need to be a howitzer. It just needs to be real enough to make a goalie flinch, the way a decent changeup keeps a fastball honest.

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None of it shows up on a scoreboard until October. But if Hutson's shot is legitimate now, Montreal's power play just got tougher to game-plan against.