The Capitals have something special in Cole Hutson
Washington Capitals prospect Cole Hutson has been lighting up college hockey this season with Boston University.
Today on Daily Faceoff Live, prospect analyst Steven Ellis joins the show to talk about how special of a prospect Hutson is and what his ceiling is.
Frank Seravalli: I wanna ask you about a brother situation. We’ve talked a lot about impact rookie, Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens, but take a look at this goal from his brother, Cole Hutson at BU. Just absolutely ridiculous. So, what is the ceiling, what are we looking at with Cole Hutson, who I guess had a tough start to his year and has rebounded pretty significantly?
Steven Ellis: Yeah, like he was someone who right off the bat had to play some heavy minutes at BU, and I think that was kind of a difficult situation for a player who defensively was always a work in progress. Like he and his brother are not completely identical. Um, for starters, Cole is a little bit bigger at the same age, I’d say a bit better of a skater there too, and then Lane has obviously caught up in his one of the most exciting skaters around. So I’d say just from an overall standpoint, it felt like Cole was the more well-rounded player when he got drafted. Then you see the stuff he’s playing doing right now. He’s got so much confidence, and I think you can look at the play from the start of the USA’s world junior training camp all the way to what we’re seeing now.
Steven Ellis: Like, it felt like that tournament alone just was so good for his confidence. He’s not afraid to make these plays. like, in the past, we saw him with EJ Emery, who was a really strong defensive player now in New York Rangers prospect and Cole Hutson can go on the rush and Emery would take over defensively and that was kind of their arrangement. But, in college, you’re gonna get burned if you’re not a two-way player like down on the point. And I think Hutson just looks just the full part right now.
Steven Ellis: He’s looking as close to a full NHL prospect as we’ve been hoping to see, so I think he’s maybe a top-four defenseman, probably a second-pairing defenseman, but a guy you can play on that power play who can go out there and be just d do what some of the same things with the puck in the way he skates that his brother does, and I’m very high on him. I was higher on Lane in the draft and a lot of people, I had him as a top 10 prospect. Obviously just had more D options last year, which is why I pushed Cole back, but like, in a lot of draft years, to me, I thought Cole Hutson was a top 15 prospect.