Welcome back to Top Shelf Prospects, the column that brings you the next crop of professional hockey players. Each day our LWOS Prospects Writers will bring you a new player profile or topical article in the lead-up to the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. Be sure to bookmark the site, follow Ben Kerr, and Frederik Frandsen on Twitter, and spread the word for the site that will bring you analytical and critical profiles and scouting reports! Last Word On Hockey Prospects is your new headquarters for everything “NHL Draft”! Today we bring you our Cole Hutson Scouting Report.
He isnt quite as prolific as his older brother Lane, but Cole Hutson has a lot of similarities. Both when it comes to his strengths and weaknesses. However, he isn’t a carbon copy or a player projected around the first round just because of his last name. He has had a good season in with the USNTDP. During the season he had 51 points in 51 games. A lot for a defenceman. He also had 12 points in the USHL, which all earned him a scholarship at Boston University next season. A strong school, which also developed his brother.
Internationally Cole Hutson was once again on top of his game during the U18 championships. Despite USA only getting the silver medal, Cole Hutson was by far the best player for Team USA. For the second time in a row, he had the most points out of all defencemen and was selected for the all-star team. This season he was also named as the best defenceman at the tournament after 13 points in seven games.
Cole Hutson 2024 NHL Draft Scouting Report
Defenceman — Shoots Left
Born June 28th, 2006 — North Barrington, IL, USA
Height 5’10″ — Weight 159 lbs [177 cm / 72 kg]
Skating
Cole Hutson is a tremendous skater. Thats as simply as it can be said. His mobility is great and he has a ton of speed to everything he does. He is a chaos magnet in good and bad, and a lot of it comes from his fast-paced skating. Its mechanically great to watch with edges that allows for quick turns and nimble movement. He is incredibly fast in the first couple of steps and reaches top speed in the first couple of strides.
The only downside to his skating is how he uses it. Its very chaotic and with a ton of risks attached. He goes in for a lot of pinches or skates through traffic to enter the zone. This makes him susceptible to turnovers. He sometimes can recover due to his skating, but is relying too much on that. In the NHL this will be punished.
Offensive Game
Another area where Cole Hutson shines. The offensive upside of the young defenceman is sky-high in almost every area. His shifty nature opens up a ton of space for him on the blue line. With that, he can either use his very accurate and deceptive shot to score or make a blinding pass to a wide-open teammate.
The options and toolkit he has in the offensive zone is staggering. He just moves around so effortlessly and makes one highlight reel play after the other. His creativity is simply through the roof and mixed with his smart offensive awareness he is incredibly hard to stop. As an offensive playmaker on the blue line there arent many teenagers that are better than Cole Hutson.
Defensive Game
With all the upside to Cole Hutson’s game, the one thing keeping him outside the top 10, is his defensive abilities. His defensive game is atrocious. He gets caught out of position far too often and his size makes him unable to win any physical battles. His stick is at times non-existent and he makes far too many mistakes on rushes where he mistimes to poke check or is unable to stop the rush on the board. It’s also incredibly inconsistent in terms of getting into the right lanes and often he looks lost out there. This has to improve, and there were late signs of it during the U18 championship where he looked more in control defensively. A small step but a much-needed one.
Projection and Comparison
Cole Hutson is in some ways the hockey equivalent of the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. On one hand, you have the good, with some of the best offensive upside in the draft. An upside with both skating, shooting, awareness and passing of the highest calibre. On the other hand, you have the bad, where the defensive aspects are inconsistent and unreliable. It’s simply not good enough and it allows far too many chances both off the rush and off-set plays. This inconsistency has to change for him to become an NHL player. Offence can only carry him so far, and without an improvement, he won’t see the NHL. However, if he does improve the skies are the limits. Just like his brother Lane Hutson, who he is very similar to stylistically.
Main Photo: David Reginek-USA TODAY Sports
