Where Lane Hutson’s New Contract Fits With Other Young NHL Defensemen

Lane Hutson, the NHL’s 2024-25 rookie of the year, signed a contract extension worth $70.8 million with the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 13, 2025. (Photo by Vitor Munhoz/NHLI via Getty Images)

NHLI via Getty Images

Lane Hutson’s new contract extension with the Montreal Canadiens represents another data point that sets the standard for top-level young defensemen in the NHL.

On Monday, the 2025 Calder Trophy winner inked an eight-year deal that carries an average annual value of $8.85 million, for a total value of $70.8 million.

The deal will take effect in the 2026-27 season. It comes in just a hair below the $9 million a year that Jackson LaCombe received for the same timeframe from the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 2. On Oct. 1, Luke Hughes of the New Jersey Devils also ended his standoff as a restricted free agent by signing a seven-year contract with an AAV of $9 million per season, which takes effect this year.

The Current Crop

These blueliners share some similarities that make them emblematic of the next wave of NHL defensemen. All three are American born and jumped directly to the NHL after playing NCAA college hockey.

At 24, LaCombe is the oldest. He spent four seasons at the University of Minnesota before joining the Anaheim Ducks at the end of the 2022-23 season. Last year, he took a massive step forward, establishing himself on the Ducks’ top defense pair while chipping in 14 goals, 43 points and, for the second-straight year, 129 blocked shots. On Saturday, he led his team with 27:32 of ice time in his 150th-career NHL game as the Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks 7-6 in overtime.

At 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds, LaCombe was drafted in the second round, 39th overall, in 2019. He has 60 career points.

Hughes, 22, is the most highly pedigreed. The youngest brother of 2024 Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes and 2019 first-overall pick Jack Hughes, Luke made history when he joined Jack with the New Jersey Devils as the fourth-overall selection in 2021. His family became the first ever to see three brothers all selected in the Top 10.

Luke also made his NHL debut at the end of the 2022-23 season, following two seasons at the University of Michigan. After posting 47 points in 82 games in 2023-24, he finished third in Calder Trophy voting behind forward Connor Bedard and another young defender, Brock Faber of the Minnesota Wild.

Faber could be considered to be a trend-setter for this cohort. Now 23, he signed his eight-year contract extension in July of 2024. It is kicking in this season and carries an AAV of $8.5 million a year. Originally a second-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2020 and also a former Minnesota Golden Gopher, Faber has 76 points in 164 NHL games.

Luke Hughes is now up to 97 points in 157 NHL games, including four assists in his first two games this season as the Devils have started 1-1-0.

As for Hutson, he’s the youngest of the group at 21. After joining the NHL at the end of the 2023-24 season following two years at Boston University, he broke out with 66 points in 82 games last season to capture the Calder and help the Canadiens return to the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

Hutson became just the fourth defenseman ever to lead all rookies in scoring, following in the footsteps of three Norris winners in Bobby Orr, Brian Leetch and Quinn Hughes. Orr and Leetch are also in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

A late second-round pick by the Canadiens, selected 62nd overall in 2022, Hutson’s dynamism is his superpower. He stands just 5-foot-9 and weighs in at 162 pounds, but is already up to 69 points in just 87 NHL games.

Current Salary Landscape For NHL Defensemen

Per PuckPedia, two of the NHL’s highest cap hits for defensemen in the 2025-26 season are 35-year-old greybeards who signed their current deals before the pandemic slowed salary-cap inflation for several years starting in 2020. Erik Karlsson of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings are both in the seventh year of eight-year contracts. Karlsson carries an AAV of $11.5 million per season while Doughty comes in at $11 million.

The group just behind them includes three 25-year-olds who were all selected in the top half of the 2018 draft and are all playing on relatively new deals. Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin is in Year 2 of an eight-year extension at $11 million that he signed on Oct. 9, 2023 while the Edmonton Oilers’ Evan Bouchard locked in on a four-year deal at $10.5 million this summer and Hutson’s new teammate, Noah Dobson, committed to $9.5 million over eight years when he was traded from the New York Islanders to the Canadiens on Day 1 of the 2025 NHL draft.

As far as the other top young stars under 25, it’s also worth mentioning 24-year-old Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings in the second year of a seven-year contract with an AAV of $8.55 million, the Sabres’ 22-year-old Owen Power in Year 2 of 7 at $8.35 million and emerging Ottawa Senators blueliner Jake Sanderson, 23, in Year 2 of 8 at $8.05 million. With deals signed earlier before the full extent of the NHL’s current salary-cap escalation was understood, they come in just below the most recent cohort.

Who’s Next?

According to PuckPedia, eight more defensemen between age 21-23 are playing out their entry-level contracts and will become restricted free agents at the end of this season. They won’t have arbitration rights, which limits their bargaining power, but the changing economic landscape will boost their chances of a big payday.

The most intriguing name on this list is Brandt Clarke, the 22-year-old defender of the future for the Los Angeles Kings. With 42 points in 106 NHL games to date, the eighth-overall pick from 2021 has seen his ice-time increase to a career-high of 17:35 this season, playing behind Doughty on the Kings’ second pair.

Sophomore Simon Edvinsson is now up to 105 games and 36 points with the Detroit Red Wings and has seen his ice time climb to 21:55 in the early going this season.

Also worth watching: Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov, who play behind LaCombe on the left side with the Anaheim Ducks. Or will another dark horse emerge to dominate the discourse among young defenders as the season wears on, like Lane Hutson did so memorably in 2024-25?