Spencer Carbery on meeting with prospect Cole Hutson during first-round series against Canadiens: His future is ‘bright,’ but his sweater choice was ‘terrible’
Washington Capitals prospect Cole Hutson attended one of his future team’s first-round playoff games last month, but not exactly as a fan of the Caps. The 18-year-old blueliner showed up to Game 3 between the Capitals and Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre wearing a Canadiens ugly Christmas sweater in support of his brother, Habs defender Lane Hutson.
While he wasn’t fully rooting for the team that made him a 2024 second-round draft pick, Hutson did meet with Caps head coach Spencer Carbery for a chat after the game. After making sure to joke about Hutson’s “terrible shirt,” Carbery revealed what his conversation with the talented defender was about on Breakdown Day, Saturday.
“It was just catching up with him, just talking to him about his year and seeing how he was doing,” Carbery said. “His dad was there as well, so chatting with him. I had met him, obviously, before. Yeah, just talking to him about the year. He obviously had a great year at BU, and I followed a lot of it and know some of the coaches there. And so just watching from afar his career and his successes and keeping tabs on how he’s doing.”
Hutson had an unbelievable freshman season with Boston University, notching 48 points (14g, 34a) in 39 games. He led all NCAA freshmen in scoring and was later named the 2025 Tim Taylor Award winner as Rookie of the Year.
The high-scoring defender announced his intention to return for his sophomore season at BU last month, citing his dream of winning a national championship. Hutson and the Terriers fell just one win short of achieving that dream at the 2025 tournament, losing 6-2 to Western Michigan in the national title game.
“Him going back to BU, hopefully has a great summer of training, and has another fantastic year, and follows up on his amazing freshman year that he had there,” Carbery said. “Another player that the future looks bright for him, right? Going to BU as a freshman to play the way that he did last year, and to go back now as a sophomore. Yeah, looking for him to continue to progress and grow.”
Like Ryan Leonard in 2024-25, Hutson could sign his entry-level deal and officially be in the Capitals’ organization at the end of next season. How soon will depend on how well BU does in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
The Missouri-born defenseman is currently with Team USA at the 2025 World Championship. Hutson, a 2025 World Juniors gold medalist for the US, played in a pre-tournament tune-up game for the senior men’s team but has not featured in any of the games since then after more NHL players were added to the roster.
Canadiens: Potential Right-Shot Defenseman Target
The Montreal Canadiens had a good season and capped it off with an unexpected playoff appearance, but that doesn’t mean the rebuild is over—far from it. To be genuine contenders, however, it may be time to acquire something besides prospects and very young players.
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Numerous rumours throughout the season have suggested that the New York Islanders may be open to trading Noah Dobson. The 25-year-old, six-foot-four, 200-pound defenseman has shown what he can do in this league in the past. He has played for parts of six seasons on Long Island, for 388 games, in which he gathered 230 points and 118 penalty minutes.
In 2023-24, he reached a career-high of 70 points in 79 games, not far off a point-per-game pace that is quite impressive for a blueliner, but he fell back to earth this season when he could only muster 39 points in 71 games.
He’s just played the third year of his three-year contract with a $4M cap hit. In February, he moved from Maloney & Thompson sports management to Wasserman Hockey, where his agents will be Judd Moldaver and Olivier Fortier. The latter will be leading the way. Fortier has two players contracted with the Canadiens: Owen Beck and Joshua Roy, both of whom are ELC contracts. He’s the agent who got Alexis Lafreniere a seven-year extension with a $7.45M cap hit annually. All of his clients, apart from Beck, are French-Canadians.
Interestingly, Fortier is a former Canadiens prospect. The organization drafted him in the third round in 2007, but when he realized his NHL dream wouldn’t come to fruition, he gave up hockey to study law and joined Momentum Hockey, a Quebec-based agency that joined Wasserman Hockey last September.
While Dobson will be an RFA soon, I think Kent Hughes would rather make a trade with the Islanders than sign the defenseman to an offer sheet. The Canadiens’ GM has traded with the Isles in the past, although business must be slow for the New York outfit as the search for a new GM to replace Lou Lamoriello continues.
The Canadiens currently hold two consecutive first-round picks at the 2025 draft, picking 16th and 17th. Hughes has already shown he’s not opposed to trading draft picks or young talent to fill a need. Hughes sent Alexander Romanov to the Islanders in his first draft at the helm for two picks: their first-round pick (at 13 overall) and a fourth-round pick (98th overall). Hughes then flipped those to the Chicago Blackhawks for Kirby Dach in his search for the ever-elusive second-line center.
Dobson’s profile fits the kind of projects Hughes likes to take on, although he could be a bit more expensive, having already shown he can succeed offensively in the NHL. A smooth skater and a player with a knack for launching an attack, he spent an average of over 23 minutes on the ice this season in New York. He would make an excellent partner for Lane Hutson and immediately shore up the Canadiens’ defense, especially with David Savard’s departure.
Would Hughes be able to sell him a “show me” deal like he did with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook? Maybe, although the agency swap may mean he’s looking for a longer-term deal, if there’s anyone who can sell the Canadiens’ rebuild to a player, it’s Hughes. However, Dobson’s situation is particular, as he’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2025-26 season, unless he signs a long-term pact. It remains to be seen if the Isles’ new management wants to move Dobson, but the offer sheet remains an option if they don’t.
