Cole Hutson could be the Flyers’ next undersized defenseman

Recent draft enthusiasts and prospect watchers might remember the case of Lane Hutson, who came into his draft in 2022 with some momentum after a successful NTDP season, but still fell well into the second round due to concerns around his size, and then turned around and asserted himself as one of the most successful and decorated defensemen in college hockey and made everyone who held those concerns look a little bit silly.

There’s an opportunity for teams to learn from those mistakes, though, as Hutson’s brother Cole enters this draft class with a remarkably similar profile and track record as his older brother. Will he end up being picked in a spot to match his actual talent level? We’ll soon find out.

Pre-draft rankings

No. 23 by Craig Button (TSN)
No. 47 by Elite Prospects
No. 31 by Scott Wheeler (The Athletic)
No. 36 by Daily Faceoff

Statistics

What’s there to like?

Hutson, while still a little raw, has pretty much all of the tools to be a really interesting and dynamic — and sneaky well rounded — defenseman in not too long.

You saw his scoring numbers already, so we’ll begin with his offensive game. Hutson found some success already last season, both playing in his age group with the NTDP U17 team, as well as up a level with the U18 team, and he carried that momentum pretty easily into his draft season, scoring at just about a point per game pace on aggregate, and finishing out the season as the top scoring defenseman in his NTDP class. And there’s a lot that goes into making Hutson’s offensive game as effective as it has been. There’s the strength of his shot and the way he’s able to find his teammates with passes to set up scoring chances. There’s, in totality, his strength as a quarterback in the offensive zone. His vision is excellent, and there’s very little panic to his game — that is, he doesn’t collapse under pressure easily, and he’s not content to just fire a shot on new from the point and hope for the best when lanes aren’t immediately apparent to him, but rather, he’s comfortable holding on to the puck, skating around a bit or passing to a teammate to create more space to work with. He’s patient, and that patience plays well into his persistence in breaking down coverages.

And we see this persistence coming through really in all areas of his game. Despite his size, we don’t see him shying away from playing a bit more physical of a game. He’s aggressive on the forecheck, and has shown a real strength at pressuring opponents to force turnovers. The tenacity helps here, but so too does the more tangible stick positioning he uses, which is also really effective.

Hutson also finds a lot of the success in his game fed by his mobility, his skating. He’s deceptive in his skating in some ways, and much of that comes from the way he’s able to cut quickly, and not just pivot well, but to gain speed coming out of those pivots. This makes for good in-tight quickness, but we also see that Hutson has good overall speed in a straight line, and this combination makes him really effective as something of a one-man breakout machine.

His speed also, lest we forget, makes him a good one-on-one defender as well, as he’s able to catch and gap up on opponents quickly and erase what might be dangerous plays against (as well as, in some cases, his mistakes).

Because, with the puck, this isn’t to say that Hutson is a perfect player. He can get caught making mistakes or an ill advised, high risk play, but even from that start of this past season to the end of it, we’ve seen his puck management improve, and that’s good news. He’s learning to manage some of the risk in his game, but he’s also not letting that come at the expense of the creativity in his game, which makes it so effective.

What’s not to like?

It feels a bit trite to immediately go to his size as a concern, in this, the year 2024, but for some it will still be a concern, so we’ll touch on that right off the bat. Hutson is, in short, an undersized defenseman, coming in at 5’10 and 157 pounds and he’s still lacking a bit of power in his game. Now, we’ve seen a similar type of profile in a number of players before — including his own brother, who went on to become one of the best players in college hockey over the last few seasons — and we’ve seen the concerns about them not being able to hold up as the level of competition increases ultimately not bear out.

But that said, there is a degree of “we have to see it to believe it” with a player like this. There’s a real chance that Hutson’s tools will win out and he’ll overcome his size to be an effective professional player, but it’s not a certainty. There are some pundits with concerns that his game might stagnate a bit, that he doesn’t project comfortably as an NHL regular, but there isn’t much consensus here. There’s a bit of risk in taking a player like this, particularly in the first round, but the rewards could well be high.

How would he fit into the Flyers’ system?

We can hear you saying it now: do the Flyers really need another undersized, offensively minded, left shooting defenseman? And the answer to that is, well, maybe!

On the one hand, there isn’t much that Hutson is bringing to the table that has not already been brought by a Cam York at the NHL level, or an Emil Andrae ahead of him on the prospect depth chart, for example. There may be some profile or stylistic redundancy here, but that doesn’t mean that Hutson’s skillset is no longer valuable. That is, adding another mobile defender, who can impact the team’s transition game positively and offer up some offense in a pinch, raises the floor of the whole defense corps, and that’s something the Flyers could use.

Could the Flyers actually get him?

Hutson is a player who very much feels like he’ll be in play as an option for the Flyers to grab with that 31/32 pick. Most pundits have him going in and around that very late first round-early second round range, so there’s a very good chance he’ll be on the board when their second pick rolls around, and it shouldn’t really require any maneuvering if they’ve decided they absolutely must have him.

What scouts are saying

Cole Hutson has the 1-on-1 game at the point down to a science. A lateral slide, a hesitation move, and he gets past the first layer of defence. He drives down the faceoff circle, fakes a shot, and sends the perfect cross-ice pass to the talented shooter sitting inside space on the other flank.
Elite Prospects 2024 NHL Draft Guide

The most productive defenseman at the NTDP over the last two years, Hutson is a highly talented offensive defenseman who doesn’t turn 18 until the day of the draft and is expected to replace his brother as BU’s power-play quarterback and play creator from the back end next season.

Cole’s got more of a physical element to his game than Lane does and plays opponents really hard so that his size is less noticeable (Lane’s plenty competitive, but Cole delivers more hits if you will), gluing himself to them in order to be as disruptive as possible and really outwardly battling along the wall. He quickly identifies second and third options, often a step ahead of opposing structures. The way he shows one thing and does another is pretty unique. His little hesitations in control into quick, decisive attacking moments grab your attention and allow him to make plays past the first layer. He has the puck on a string at times. I think he’s a better skater than his big brother was at the same age (he snakes his way through gaps in coverage so effortlessly, and his lateral agility on cuts is a major strength). He executes some beautiful stretch passes. He’s got great touch and feel on his backhand as well as his forehand. And he’s holding his own defensively for my money. His teams have been better with him out there on the back end in each of the last two seasons than without him. Some teams will question whether his game will translate and progress enough to hang at the NHL level but I’m still a big believer in the talent and like him as a late-first/second-rounder even though he might well go later than that.
Scott Wheeler, The Athletic

Welcome to the poll…

No one! We had a four(!)-way tie for this spot so we are not adding anyone new just yet.

Previously on the Draft Board:

Macklin Celebrini

BSH 2024 Community Draft Board, No. T-26: Cole Hutson