Open this photo in gallery: Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson turns behind his goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first period at Scotiabank Arena on April 12.Dan Hamilton/Reuters When he sits in front of his dressing stall, Lane Hutson looks impossibly small to be an NHL defenceman. And way too young. Like he must have a paper route in the morning before school. He is listed at 162 pounds, which makes him the lightest player in the league. His height, which is listed as 5 feet 9, seems overly generous. “He doesn’t play small,” Hutson’s teammate Nick Suzuki, the captain of the Montreal Canadiens, said as he looks at him across the locker room at the Bell Centre. “He engages people physically and wins battles.” A second-round draft pick in 2022, Hutson has had a remarkable rookie season with the Canadiens. He tied an NHL record for a first-year blueliner with his 60th assist and led all the league’s rookies in assists, points (66), power-play points (26), blocked shots (123), takeaways (56) and time on ice per game. Now the 21-year-old is headed to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time. Montreal clinched the second wildcard berth in the Eastern Conference on Wednesday with a victory at home over Carolina and begins a best-of-seven series against Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals in Washington on Monday. “I honestly don’t know what to expect,” Hutson said amid the din of the Canadiens’ victorious dressing room. “I assume it’s going to be intense. Whatever has happened to this point doesn’t matter. It’s going to be a whole different game out there.” Asked to elaborate on putting his name in an NHL record book in his first season, he grappled for words. Looked a little bashful, actually. “It’s cool,” he eventually said. “I just really enjoy playing and the guys make it easy for me. It has just been a great season.” It has been that for both him and the Habs, who claimed a spot in the postseason for the first time in four years in their very last regular-season contest. To do it, they have gone 15-5-6 since the 4 Nations Face-Off and beat out the Columbus Blue Jackets by one point. ““It has been a long season of ups and downs and this last stretch was tough for everyone,” Hutson said. “You try not to show you are rattled but everyone gets rattled and handles it differently. ” https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/article-nhl-playoffs-predictions-2025-schedule-leafs-senators-oilers-jets/ This is the first time Montreal reached the playoffs in four years. In the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign, the Canadiens were defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup final. With an average age of 25.95 years, they are the youngest team to reach the postseason in NHL history. The Russian Ivan Demidov is their youngest player at 19, followed by Hutson and Juraj Slafkovsky. They are both 21 and born a month part. Hutson finished third on the team in scoring behind only Suzuki and Cole Caufield, and is a leading candidate to be selected the league’s best rookie. Macklin Celebrini of San Jose, Matvei Michkov of Philadelphia and Dustin Wolf of Calgary are also among the frontrunners. Should Hutson win the Calder Trophy, he would be Montreal’s first winner since Ken Dryden in 1972. Hutson is from Michigan but grew up in the Chicago suburbs and played for two seasons at Boston University, where he was one of the best players in the NCAA. He was uncertain where and when he would be picked in the 2022 draft, which was held at the Bell Centre. He was listed as 5 foot 8 and 158 pounds at the time and there was a debate over whether he could withstand the rigours of the NHL. “People said I was too small all the time but I didn’t let it bother me too much,” Hutson said. “The way I look at it is that there are big guys and small guys but when you get on the ice you are all the same size.” He played for the Canadiens in two games at the end of last season and collected two assists. And then this year he pretty much stunned everyone in the league. “You never know what to expect,” Hutson said. “Having great teammates helped me to adjust. At this level no one messes up, really. In college it’s chaotic. Mistakes happen. Here they happen on a limited basis. “It’s the best league in the world. I am still learning.” Hutson caught the attention of Martin St. Louis, the Montreal coach, early on. St. Louis went undrafted because he was just 5-8 and went on have a brilliant career. As such, he admits to having a soft spot for small players with a big heart. “Early on he showed me how competitive he was on both sides of the puck,” St. Louis, who won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004 and has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, said. “You have to be careful with over-coaching these young players because they’re so dynamic. “For me, in the early stage with Lane, it was making him understand that it’s not a one-on-one game but that there will be those moments. And also, that he has to manage his risk. It’s not easy for the players who have so much talent offensively because they feel they can make something out of nothing a lot of times. The problem with that in the NHL is, when you get burned, the talent coming back on the other side put the puck in the back of your net. “To me he has improved tremendously. If you talk to Lane about anything, it doesn’t take long for him to recognize and apply whatever you want. It’s instant.” Hutson has excelled beyond any reasonable expectation. “There are lots of little lessons I think I am figuring out,” he said. “I think the biggest thing in this league is the mental sharpness. You have to be ready to go every night.” He doesn’t speak French yet. “Hopefully I will be here long enough to learn it,” he said good-naturedly. That shouldn’t be a problem.