Jack Todd

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Jack Todd: Lane Hutson is giving Canadiens fans much to cheer about Jack Todd: Lane Hutson is giving Canadiens fans much to cheer about Rookie showed during weekend games he is the most exciting, charismatic young defenceman to wash up on these shores since P.K. Subban. Author of the article: • Special to Montreal Gazette Article content It's 28 degrees outside. If the leaves are beginning to turn somewhere, it's not in my hood. It feels like early August, a time to put your feet up, take the occasional dip in the pool and eat barbecue till you bust. Advertisement 2 Article content Jack Todd: Lane Hutson is giving Canadiens fans much to cheer about Back to video So what in the name of Crazytown were 20,000 fans doing at the Bell Centre to watch a prospects game between the young Maple Leafs and the young Canadiens, when most of the players on the ice will have to buy a ticket to get into the building five years from now? For openers, the weekend double dip into hockey was affordable, especially for families who can't even dream of taking in a Leafs-Habs game in December. Then there was the chance to see the handful of players who have a chance to crack the lineup when the big clubs get serious later this week. But the focus for most fans had to be the slender figure wearing number 48 in red. One Lane Hutson, the quicksilver 20-year-old Michigan-born defenceman drafted 62nd overall in 2022 in what looks like a stroke of sheer genius on the part of Kent Hughes & Co. Advertisement 3 Article content The fans got their money's worth. Owen Beck had an outstanding weekend . So did Logan Mailloux. Filip Mesar was eye-catching at times and so was Emil Heineman. But we're guessing that the majority of fans went home talking about Hutson. There was a play in the second period of Sunday's game when Hutson looked like Steve Shutt as he burst in on left wing and took on two defenders. He had nowhere to go with the puck and the play went nowhere — but a couple of ticks later, there was Hutson back at his post in his own zone, looking as though he had never left. Look, these were prospects games and to see young players trading heavy punches in these exhibitions is sickening. But Hutson is the most exciting, charismatic young defenceman to wash up on these shores since P.K. Subban arrived, brazenly tooting his own horn, in the spring of 2010. Advertisement 4 Article content Obviously, we will have to see how Hutson fares through the long, wearying struggle that is an NHL season. He will be tested on a nightly basis, banged and slashed and cross-checked by bigger, stronger, older players. Sportsnet's Eric Engels, however, picked up on a couple of aspects of Hutson's game that have gone pretty much unnoticed. “It's easy to get caught up in all the fancy stuff Lane Hutson can do,” Engels said on Twitter. “What's standing out most to me … is the energy he plays with and how hard he works.” Those characteristics, coupled with his intelligence and vision, will affect Hutson's career more than the slick skating and adroit stickhandling. Does that mean the Canadiens have drafted another Quinn Hughes ? It's too early to say. Our best guess now? Hutson is going to be a key part of a very young, very exciting hockey team this season. Advertisement 5 Article content The Game 13 blues: Should we be concerned about the defending Grey Cup champs? In a sport you get your head beat in on a weekly basis, it's tough to get up for games that border on meaningless and the Alouettes are 10-2-1 even after a loss and a 19-19 tie in Calgary. What really hurts is the absence of their two game-breaking receivers, Tyson Philpot (out for the season) and Austin Mack, who played one game before being shelved for at least six. But with their defence and innate resilience, the Als are still our pick to win the Grey Cup. &&&& still more lies, rumours &&&& vicious innuendo: Slovenian Tadej Pogacar won another Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal Sunday, after winning the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France earlier this year and after countryman Primoz Roglic won his fourth Vuelta a Espana. … Advertisement 6 Article content Almost brought a tear to my eye to see that Jaromir Jagr is back on the ice. It appears that rumours of his retirement were greatly exaggerated. Jagr lost 17 pounds in the off-season and came back to the Czech league for another campaign at age 52. … You know who else could still play? One Martin St. Louis, at 49 nearly Jagr's age, is in such superb condition that he would not embarrass himself, even in the NHL. … I don't care if Rick Campbell is a lousy coach. But if he messes up Nathan Rourke, we're going to have a bone to pick. … Not surprised to see Max Pacioretty has signed a professional tryout contract with Toronto. With his scoring touch and his disdain for the rough stuff around the net, Pacioretty should fit right in. Heroes: Sarah Mitton, Marco Arop, Alysha Newman, Marina Stakusic, Jose Maltos, Darnell Sankey, Wesley Sutton, Mustafa Johnson, Caitlin Clark, A'ja Wilson, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, McLaren, Canelo Alvarez, Tadej Pogacar &&&& last but not least, Lane Hutson. Zeros: Chad Kelly, Jon Rahm, LIV Golf, Jack Eichel, Deion Sanders, Aaron Rodgers, Jim Harbaugh, the Cowboys, Bev Priestman, John Herdman, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria. Now and forever. 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Dodgers superstar, who isn't even pitching this year, has taken an old game to new heights with 53 homers and 55 stolen bases so far.

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Jack Todd: Is Shohei Ohtani Major League Baseball's saviour? Jack Todd: Is Shohei Ohtani Major League Baseball's saviour? Dodgers superstar, who isn't even pitching this year, has taken an old game to new heights with 53 homers and 55 stolen bases so far. Author of the article: • Special to Montreal Gazette Article content The question before the house this morning, beagles and baubles, is whether a Japanese superstar can save baseball from itself. Advertisement 2 Article content Jack Todd: Is Shohei Ohtani Major League Baseball's saviour? Back to video Can Slugger West Shohei Ohtani team with Slugger East Aaron Judge to provide a truly compelling post-season in a sport that hasn't seen one since the Red Sox junked the jinx? Will we see the Dodgers vs. the Yankees in a throwback World Series for all the marbles? Alas, our trusty crystal ball is murky — but I fervently hope so. I've hated the Yankees since forever and the Dodgers since Tommy Lasorda, but I'm pulling for Judge and Ohtani, two towering figures who bestride the game like comic-book superheroes. I prefer the old-fashioned box scores, the kind I used to cut out of the newspaper and save when Hank Aaron or Willie Mays had a big day. Thursday night's line for Ohtani was stunning: Six at-bats, four runs, six hits, 10 runs batted in. Advertisement 3 Article content Add three home runs, a double and two stolen bases and you have a night for the ages — no need to dress it up with exit velocities, launch angles and WAR. That Ohtani also became the sole member of the 50-50 club with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases hardly mattered. A Japanese player who is taking a year off pitching had taken a very old game to a very new level. It came Thursday night against the Marlins in Los Angeles, the Dodgers running up a 20-4 score against pitching that was hardly worthy of the name. The Grand Old Game had stolen the spotlight from the NFL, which offered a pitiful struggle between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots the same night. Until Ohtani zeroed in on 50 homers and 50 steals, Judge was all the talk in baseball. His season is unreal: As of this writing, he is hitting .323 with 55 home runs (two more than Ohtani) 138 RBI, a .458 on-base percentage and a .695 slugging percentage. Advertisement 4 Article content Like Ohtani, Judge is apparently doing it without the aid of either performance-enhancing drugs or trash cans. Baseball needs to see these two go head-to-head. A reason to stay up until your average World Series game ends — around 1:27 a.m. And the Als just keep on trucking: The Alouettes' defence made Ottawa quarterback Dru Brown look like a high-school kid Saturday. Special teams crackled. The offence, as my trusty sidekick Zeke Herbowsky pointed out , is more station wagon than Ferrari. Yet here are the Als, after a 25-12 road win in our nation's capital, at 11-2-1 and almost certain to finish the season with the league's best record. Without receivers Tyson Philpot (gone for the season) and Austin Mack (out six games after playing just one in his return from the NFL) the Alouettes on offence are a bit one-dimensional: Pound the ball with running-back Walter Fletcher via the run and the short pass. Fletcher was superb against the Redblacks but will it be enough? Advertisement 5 Article content It says here that the Alouettes are headed for a Grey Cup rematch against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Who wins? Flip a coin. A punch too far: I didn't see the fight but by all accounts, 27-year-old Daniel Dubois, boxing's newest superstar, destroyed his fellow British heavyweight Anthony Joshua in their IBF title bout Saturday. Four knockdowns, beginning in the first round and ending in the fifth when Dubois dropped Joshua for the last time. Unfortunately, it's “last time” only for this bout. Joshua, who has absorbed punches from some of the hardest hitters boxing has ever seen, will probably fight on even though he turns 35 next week. It's what boxers do. Closer to home, 42-year-old Jean Pascal knocked out Terry Osias in the 10th round to win his bout Saturday night. Osias, a former Pascal sparring partner, is 37. Should they go on fighting? Almost certainly not. Will they? Advertisement 6 Article content Boxers have no union to negotiate for them. They aren't in the company pension plan. The good ones earn substantial purses that are picked to the bone by agents, managers and promoters. So they fight on. Silly Sulayem: It's hard to understand why FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem would go out of his way to pick a fight with the top drivers in F1. Ego? Boredom? Sheer pettiness? Whatever, Sulayem electing to punish Max Verstappen for dropping an F-bomb is absurd. It's gotten to the point where Verstappen is threatening to leave F1 and Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris are backing him. Sulayem's popularity is somewhere between punctured tire and blown engine. His intrusion into a rare competitive season is incomprehensible. Advertisement 7 Article content It's enough to make you wish FIA had Max Mosley back, whip and all. Heroes: Dionté Ruffin, Geoffrey Cantin-Arku, Walter Fletcher, Daniel Dubois, Lando Norris, Sam Darnold, A'ja Wilson, Bridget Carleton, Chris Wideman, Mercury Morris, Josef Martinez, Caden Clark, Aaron Judge &&&& last but not least, Shohei Ohtani. Zeros: Mohammed Ben Sulayem, Deion Sanders, Aaron Rodgers, Jim Harbaugh, Jerry Jones, Bev Priestman, John Herdman, the White Sox, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria. Now and forever. 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This young, rebuilding Montreal team has something special going on in the present and I predict great things for them in the near future.

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Jack Todd: Canadiens' improved depth should pay dividends this season After mostly poor drafts since the '90s, recently Montreal has stockpiled young talent that should be able to step in when injuries occur. Author of the article: • Special to Montreal Gazette Article content Advertisement 2 Article content Jack Todd: Canadiens' improved depth should pay dividends this season Back to video Advertisement 3 Article content Ryan "Pucks" Pyette on the OHL OHL news and expert analysis from Ryan Pyette. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Ryan "Pucks" Pyette on the OHL will soon be in your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again Article content Advertisement 4 Article content Advertisement 5 Article content Advertisement 6 Article content Advertisement 7 Article content Advertisement 8 Article content Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Jack Todd: Canadiens' improved depth should pay dividends this season Latest National Stories News Near Timmins Featured Local Savings

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Jack Todd: Canadiens' improved depth should pay dividends this season Jack Todd: Canadiens' improved depth should pay dividends this season After mostly poor drafts since the '90s, recently Montreal has stockpiled young talent that should be able to step in when injuries occur. Author of the article: • Special to Montreal Gazette Article content It was the one of the few times I rode on the Canadiens' charter to a game, back in the days before Bob Gainey gave journalists the heave-ho from the team plane. Advertisement 2 Article content Jack Todd: Canadiens' improved depth should pay dividends this season Back to video For the long, long flight from Montreal, I was seated up front next to club president Ronald Corey. As we landed, there were none of the usual cheers. The players seated behind us began swearing like sailors. We were landing in a driving snowstorm. Not a surprise during hockey season, perhaps — but we were landing in Phoenix on a trip that included Dallas and Nashville and almost every player on the flight had packed his golf clubs. The weather would improve, but everything else would get worse. The Canadiens began the trip at 8-14-3 and finished it 8-16-4. The morning skate before the game against the Coyotes was held at a tiny rink 20 miles out in the suburbs, where the rusty old Zamboni belched black smoke and players staggered off the ice feeling nauseous. Advertisement 3 Article content Back at the team hotel that afternoon, I got a call from Mark Recchi, asking if I could come to his room. I found Recchi waiting with team captain Vincent Damphousse and Shayne Corson, another veteran leader. The subject was the team's depth — or lack of same. There was talent on the roster — those three players along with Saku Koivu, Martin Rucinsky, Brian Savage, the inscrutable Vladimir Malakhov. But the team's best players were banged up and playing hurt because there was no one to take their place. Years of bad trades and worse draft picks had taken a toll and the cupboard was bare. Players were being called up who had no business playing in the NHL. After we talked, I wrote a lengthy piece on the precipitous decline of the once-mighty Canadiens. I filed it from Dallas, where the team lost again. Advertisement 4 Article content The Canadiens finished that 1998-99 season with 75 points, good for 11th out of 14 teams in the Eastern Conference. That March, Damphousse was traded to San Jose. In May, Corey resigned as team president, his legacy two Stanley Cups, the Bell Centre and a floundering franchise. Fast forward a quarter-century and here we are, about to start a new season with a team that finished last in the Atlantic Division with 76 points, its reward the considerable talent that is Ivan Demidov So why does this feel so different from the nadir of 1998? Superficially, we see Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky , Kirby Dach, Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson and Patrik Laine when he's healthy. But the real difference is the subject of that long-ago chat with Recchi, Damphousse and Corson: depth. As the pre-season ended, there were brisk arguments as to who should go and who should stay. Joshua Roy did not have a strong camp and was sent down to the Laval Rocket on Monday, while Emil Heineman and Oliver Kapanen did and skated with the main club at practice. Advertisement 5 Article content So who should start on the wings with Kirby Dach? And what of centreman Owen Beck? He will be in Montreal sooner or later, but when? With Demidov and the highly regarded Michael Hage in the pipeline, where do forwards like Sean Farrell and Filip Mesar fit in? Even with the trades of useful defencemen Johnathan Kovacevic (AKA Superstar since his performance with the Devils in Prague) and Jordan Harris, the club is so deep on the blue line that first rounders Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher were ticketed for Laval before Reinbacher was hurt. The depth is obvious, even in goal. The best pre-season performance was not from either Samuel Montembeault or Cayden Primeau but from young Czech netminder Jakub Dobes, while Jacob Fowler is still at Boston College. Advertisement 6 Article content For now, the change is visible mostly on the depth chart because pre-season is meaningless by definition. The games start to count Wednesday, when the mighty Maple Leafs come to town. (The “national” media, of course, has already awarded the Stanley Cup to Toronto, but we know how that story ends.) In truth, the tough Atlantic Division is divided into two tiers — the Panthers, Bruins, Leafs and Lightning in first class, the Red Wings, Sabres, Senators and Habs in second. For any of the second-tier teams to climb, someone needs to fall. The team most likely to tumble would be Tampa (which had to give up both Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev.) So if someone falls, who moves up? Detroit is closest — but I'm picking the Canadiens to get there first. Advertisement 7 Article content No one said it will be easy. If the regular-season special teams are as dreadful as they were in pre-season, the Canadiens are a dead lock to earn a top-5 lottery pick. Even if that's the case, this team has come a long way from that charter flight into snowy Phoenix 26 years ago. If nothing else, they're way more fun to watch. Heroes: Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, Arber Xhekaj, Johnathan Kovacevic, Coco Gauff, Napheesa Collier, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Bridget Carleton &&&& last but not least, Shohei Ohtani. Zeros: Roman Rotenberg, Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins, Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers, Bev Priestman, John Herdman, John Fisher, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria. Now and forever. Advertisement 8 Article content Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Jack Todd: Canadiens' improved depth should pay dividends this season Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. 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While Cayden Primeau struggled and Montreal was outmuscled, Lane Hutson dazzled and Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Josh Anderson played well.

Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson are lucky to have a head coach in Montreal who knows all about excelling in a league that skews bigger.

Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson are lucky to have a head coach in Montreal who knows all about excelling in a league that skews bigger.