BROSSARD, Que. — The culmination of this entire process happened on the ice, which couldn’t have been more appropriate, because that is where Lane Hutson is happiest.
The Montreal Canadiens had just finished a Thanksgiving Day practice when, suddenly, coach Martin St. Louis told Hutson, and only Hutson, to do a lap. It was unusual, and some players wondered why St. Louis would do that.
But then St. Louis informed the team that Hutson had just signed an eight-year contract. By the time Hutson returned from his extra lap, his teammates were waiting for him, starting with Cole Caufield, who looked as if he were about to drop him with a shoulder to the chest.
He gave him a big hug instead, and the entire team joined in afterward.
1 min 17 s d’amour pour Lane 🥹
Nothing but love for No. 48#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/3ey80EV86a
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 13, 2025
What’s important to note here is that St. Louis made no mention of money to the team. He just noted the new contract.
Juraj Slafkovský was getting out of his gear in the dressing room afterward when he was asked what he thought of the new contract.
“What’s the deal?” he asked.
He had no idea.
When he heard it was an eight-year contract worth $8.85 million a year, or $1.25 million a year more than Slafkovský started earning this year on his contract extension signed 15 months ago, he smiled.
“That’s great,” he said. “He wants to win.”
The fact Hutson was making more than Slafkovský had nothing to do with his evaluation of the contract. It was the fact Hutson was making less than he could have insisted on making, less than he might have made had he waited until next summer to see if anyone would sign a more favourable, comparable contract. That was most important to Slafkovský.
That is what’s most important to all his teammates.
“We’re in a different world with contracts now than when I signed,” said captain Nick Suzuki, whose $7.875 million served as somewhat of a ceiling for Canadiens players coming out of their entry-level contract. “I really couldn’t care less of who makes what and who’s the highest or whatever, it doesn’t really matter. I signed four years ago, and I knew I was going to be locked into that. It’s perfectly fine.”
Being a good teammate is most important to Hutson. That became clear when the contract became final, and especially by the number attached to it. But what’s most telling is Hutson’s role in all of it.
The seven days leading up to Monday morning’s contract announcement are worth revisiting.
Last Monday, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes went on a preseason media blitz, conducting one-on-one interviews with numerous outlets. That same day, we learned Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid had agreed to a two-year extension worth $12.5 million a year, the same amount he is making already.
The McDavid deal had absolutely nothing to do with Hutson coming out of entry-level, but it had everything to do with what Hughes wanted to communicate about the Canadiens’ approach to the negotiations.
It was a perfect storm.
Without going into explicit details, Hughes reiterated to everyone he spoke with that day how the Canadiens are trying to build a cap culture in Montreal, how Caufield and Slafkovský and others had taken a tiny bit less than they were probably worth to help build that culture. This was said over and over that day on television, radio and in print interviews. The questions were predictable considering the massive bit of news that dropped that morning, and Hughes could have said he wouldn’t talk publicly about ongoing contract negotiations, as he always does.
He didn’t do that, though. He sent a message instead.
Three days later, coming off a season-opening loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs one night prior, Hughes arrived in the press box at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit alongside Ryan Barnes, one of Hutson’s agents. Barnes is based in Detroit, so this was not a shock, but walking through the press box where journalists are all awaiting the start of a game is not exactly the most discreet thing you can do. Barnes was also seen entering the Canadiens management box at the second intermission of that game.
The following day, on Friday, the Canadiens had a day off in Chicago, Hutson’s hometown. At that point, Hutson, Hughes, Barnes and Sean Coffey, an associate of Barnes from Quartexx Management, all joined a call. This was an important moment.
Hutson had said last Monday — essentially at the same time Hughes was conducting all those interviews — that he was taking a “hands-off” approach to negotiations, trusting his agents to take care of that so he could concentrate on hockey.
The reality is that as this story continued brewing and bubbling over, concentrating on hockey became harder to do. The other reality is that it would be inappropriate for Hughes or anyone in Canadiens management to speak directly with Hutson about the situation, something Hughes knows better than anyone as a former agent. So that conversation had not happened.
Not until Friday in Chicago. And that night, the framework of a deal began to take shape, with the final details hammered out Saturday and the contract signed Monday.
That conversation in Chicago was consequential because Hutson stopped being as hands-off as he had been.
“It struck me that he wanted to make sure we understood how much he wanted to be here and how hard he was going to work,” Hughes said Monday. “I kind of cut him off and said, ‘Lane, there wouldn’t be an eight-year deal if we didn’t believe in who you were at your core.’ The kind of person he is, how committed he is to being the best version of himself, but also being the best version of a teammate.”
From Hutson’s point of view, the goal of that conversation was to relay that, despite how the negotiations were going, he was all in on what the Canadiens are building and wanted to be part of it.
“Kind of that I have belief, that we aren’t far off from being a team that can be a Stanley Cup championship team,” Hutson said. “And not just once, hopefully we continue to do it. Just the belief I have in this group.”
The Canadiens now have six core players signed through at least 2030, including Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský and Noah Dobson. Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images
Montreal now has Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovský, Guhle, Hutson and Noah Dobson signed at least through 2030 for a combined total of $47.175 million a year. Rookie Ivan Demidov will be up for a contract extension on July 1, and assuming the Canadiens can get a similarly reasonable deal done with him, their core will be locked up at a number hovering around $56 million.
The salary cap is projected to be $113.5 million in 2027-28, meaning that group of seven will take up roughly 50 percent of the Canadiens’ player budget. At that point, this will no longer be a young team. Suzuki will enter that season having just celebrated his 28th birthday, and he is the oldest player in that group.
The flexibility the Canadiens will benefit from will help them accomplish the success that Hutson feels they are capable of having. His decision to put this contract issue behind him will play a big part in that.
“I always love to see guys get paid and get what they’re worth,” Suzuki said. “We’ve kind of built a culture here where guys are not trying to break the bank. I think all Lane wants to do is win, and he’s definitely set us up for that possibility moving on into the future.”
Now that Hutson and several of his teammates have done their part to provide this flexibility, the onus falls on Hughes to use that flexibility to its full potential to get this team over that hump and keep it there.
“(I know we have to) continue to keep other young players we think will be part of it and add where there’s an opportunity, as there was this summer with Noah Dobson, and we were going to have to pay significantly,” Hughes said. “The reality is, if you go into the open market, you’re going to have to pay. Our hope is that we are able to build this team as much as possible internally, but when you have a young group of players that are committed to this team, I think we owe it to them that if we believe there’s a hole in the lineup that’s needed to be filled in order to have a championship-calibre team, then we’re going to have to do that.”
There are many phases to a rebuild, and adding the finishing touches to a long-term project might be the most difficult.
Drafting Hutson at the end of the second round in this administration’s first draft was one thing that fell right. Getting Hutson’s signature on this contract is another. Still, there is more that needs to fall right in the years ahead.
The foundation to get that done, however, is now in place.
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