Why Canadiens’ Lane Hutson overwhelming dominated the Calder Trophy vote

The NHL announced Tuesday that Montreal Canadiens’ defenseman Lane Hutson has won the 2025 Calder Trophy.

Hutson ran away in voting with 165 first-place votes, well ahead of second-place goaltender Dustin Wolf of the Calgary Flames and his 15 first-place votes. San Jose Sharks’ forward Macklin Celebrini, the 2024 No. 1 overall pick who played with Hutson at Boston Univeristy, received 11 first-place votes.

Hutson scored six goals and recorded 60 assists for 66 points in 82 regular-season games in 2024-25. He became just the fourth defenseman in the NHL’s modern era to lead rookies in scoring, joining Bobby Orr, Brian Leetch and Quinn Hughes.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss Hutson’s rookie campaign and what he did to run away with the votes.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Fascinating to see him get that many first-place votes when, I think you could go back to February, and a lot of people were still split on who they would vote for.

Frank Seravalli: I think a few things happened here. One: Dustin Wolf fell short of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which I think was a big barrier to entry for some people when thinking about awards. Macklin Celebrini missed a chunk of games, which didn’t help. Then Hutson went on a tear on the exact moment in time when people are really beginning to spend a lot of time thinking about their ballot and putting it together – then the Canadiens made the playoffs.

What we saw from Hutson with 66 points was a guy that really had a historic season for a rookie defenseman. His dynamic play, his ability at the blue line to make things happen, the energy that he gave to the entire Montreal Canadiens team, I think he really proved himself to be a game changer.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…