The Washington Capitals signed prospect Cole Hutson to a three-year, entry-level contract on Sunday afternoon. Hutson will arrive in DC as the Capitals are in the middle of a four-game homestand.
According to team reporter Mike Vogel, Hutson is expected to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Sunday night. He’ll then practice with his new teammates for the first time on Tuesday morning — the Capitals have a scheduled day off on Monday — and could make his NHL debut against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.
The Capitals are no strangers to immediately inserting a highly touted college prospect directly into their lineup, as they did so just last season with Hutson’s good friend Ryan Leonard. Leonard signed his entry-level contract with the team on March 31 and made his NHL debut against the Boston Bruins the next day.
“For him, it’s similar to Ryan last year,” general manager Chris Patrick told Vogel. “It gives them a sense for how good the League is, and especially this time of year, when teams are pushing for playoff positioning or to get into the playoffs. It’ll give him a good experience of detail-oriented, high-intensity, high-level hockey at the NHL level.
“And for us, we’ll just see how it looks. I don’t think we want to put too much into it. This isn’t an easy situation to come into, when you’re coming in late in the season, coming off your college season, having never been in an NHL training camp. So, we’ll see how he looks, and I don’t think we’ll make too many decisions based off this little window of games here, one way or the other.”
Hutson will be familiar with MedStar Capitals Iceplex as he has participated in the last two development camps at the Capitals’ practice facility. He will also have an immediate peer to lean on in Leonard, who not only went through the same process last year but also is a former teammate of Hutson’s at the junior level on Team USA. The two have stayed in regular contact and text each other “pretty much every day.”
Tuesday’s practice will also potentially give a first glimpse at who head coach Spencer Carbery will initially pair Hutson up with on the blueline. The Capitals already have three regular left-handed defensemen, Jakob Chychrun, Martin Fehervary, and Rasmus Sandin, so one of those rearguards could be moved to their off-hand side.
With Hutson’s Boston University team making an earlier-than-likely-expected exit from NCAA play, the Capitals have 14 games remaining on their schedule to get the defender’s feet wet.
