Cole Hutson is the newest member of the Washington Capitals after signing a three-year, entry-level contract with the team on Sunday.
Cole, the younger brother of Calder Trophy-winning defenseman Lane Hutson, arrives in DC with a lot of hype and big expectations after playing two fantastic seasons of college hockey for Boston University.
With Hutson’s first practice with the team on Tuesday, here’s why his signing is so notable and how he may fit in with the team this season and in the future.
Hutson is one of the highest-scoring college defensemen in 25 years among his peers.
The NCAA has produced a sizable number of star-level defensemen in the NHL since the 2000-01 season, and Hutson ranks among the very best in college production. Among all under-20 defenders to have played two seasons in the NCAA during that timeframe, Hutson ranks fourth in both overall scoring (80) and points per game (1.08). Only five rearguards have averaged over a point per game.
The only blueliners ahead of him on the list are his older brother Lane Hutson, Zeev Buium, and Luke Hughes. Even then, there is a Cole-related caveat: neither Hughes nor Buium ever led their respective schools in scoring, as they played on high-powered national championship contenders, and the elder Hutson played his sophomore season with San Jose Sharks phenom Macklin Celebrini.
Cole did not have the luxury of playing with a good Boston University team this year, finishing as the Terriers’ leading scorer with 32 points (10g, 22a) in 35 games. He was the sole player on the roster to hit the 30-point mark, and only four total BU players even reached 20 points this season.
“High-end skill level coupled with high-end vision,” Capitals general manager Chris Patrick told the team’s Mike Vogel. “He seems to see plays that elite players see. A lot of times when we’d watch him in college even, he’d make plays that didn’t really turn into anything, not because it was a bad play, but more I think because the play he was making, the recipient wasn’t ready for it, because they weren’t expecting to get a puck in that spot, and so it turns into nothing.
“But when you put them with an NHL player, that same play might be a goal. For me, it’s the skill combined with the vision and creativity makes him a really dangerous offensive player.”
After recording 47 points (14g, 33a) in 38 games in his freshman season, Hutson was named the 2025 Tim Taylor Award winner as NCAA Rookie of the Year. He notched eight points (2g, 6a) in four NCAA Tournament games last year en route to an appearance in the national championship game. His brother, Lane, only recorded four points in his six career tournament games for BU.
Active NHL defensemen’s college point production
| Player | GP | Pts | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lane Hutson | 77 | 97 | 1.26 |
| Zeev Buium | 83 | 98 | 1.18 |
| Luke Hughes | 80 | 87 | 1.09 |
| Cole Hutson | 74 | 80 | 1.08 |
| Adam Fox | 64 | 68 | 1.06 |
| Jake Sanderson | 45 | 41 | 0.91 |
| Quinn Hughes | 69 | 62 | 0.90 |
| Zach Werenski | 71 | 61 | 0.86 |
| Charlie McAvoy | 75 | 51 | 0.68 |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 77 | 48 | 0.62 |
Rasmus Sandin could move to the right side to give Cole Hutson a spot on the left.
Hutson will arrive in DC to an already quite crowded defense corps, with Jakob Chychrun, Matt Roy, Rasmus Sandin, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Timothy Liljegren, Martin Fehervary, Declan Chisholm, and Dylan McIlrath all slotted on the Capitals’ depth chart. Chychrun, Sandin, Fehervary, and Chisholm, in particular, are all left-handed like Hutson.
To get Hutson into the lineup, head coach Spencer Carbery could move one of Chychrun, Sandin, or Fehervary to their off-hand side, something the team has had Sandin do in recent weeks. Patrick previously relayed his vision of pairing Hutson with Liljegren, one of the team’s trade deadline acquisitions, but whether Carbery agrees with that assessment is not yet known.
Hutson will likely be eased into whatever role he takes up over the last 14 games this season, just as Ryan Leonard was last year. Young defenders in the NHL tend to have a much more difficult learning curve than forwards, so Patrick made it clear that the Capitals won’t be taking too much away from this first step into the league for Hutson.
“For him, it’s similar to Ryan last year,” Patrick said. “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.
“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.”
Potential Capitals pairings during Hutson’s debut
While Hutson’s speed and amazing ability with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone are the first things that jump out about him, it’s clear the Capitals believe the steps he has taken from a defensive and physical side of the game are what make them comfortable with sticking him right into an NHL fire.
“I think he’s focused on trying to be a harder defender, harder to play against,” Patrick said. “I saw that a little bit this year in his game, where I think he bought more of a physical element than maybe he did his first year. At BU, he definitely plays with a bit of an edge at times, physically. He’s not afraid to get into physical battles and physical confrontations. And I think that was a concerted effort on his part.”
“Going back for a second year at BU, we wanted to make sure that he was working on the parts of his game that made him a more complete player. And for me, that’s what I’ve seen this year.”
Playing 10 games this season or not doesn’t matter: Hutson has already eaten up a year of his entry-level contract by signing.
PuckPedia revealed the full details of Hutson’s three-year contract with the Capitals on Sunday afternoon. The structure of Hutson’s entry-level deal closely resembles the one that Leonard signed with the Caps last year.
Given that Hutson turns 20 before December 31 — his birthday is on June 28 — he is not an entry-level slide candidate, meaning the first year of his three-year deal will be burned simply by signing the contract. The Capitals can freely play Hutson in as many games as they choose down the stretch, and it won’t make a difference in how quickly he reaches restricted free agent status.
Hutson’s cap hit of $941K is slightly cheaper than Leonard’s $950K, but his AAV is actually higher, $2.23M compared to Leonard’s $2.21M, due to a slight difference in signing bonuses. Just like Leonard, Hutson has a few performance bonuses baked into the first year of his contract, including $25K for playing in five games, $77.5K for playing in 10 games, and $262.5K for winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as 2026 NHL playoff MVP.
Leonard had the same highly unlikely condition in his contract, which the Capitals purposefully included to ensure that the prospects could earn more achievable bonuses in the second years of their contracts and the year after. Under current cap rules, all contracts, entry-level included, can’t increase by more than 100 percent year over year. So, by adding the large potential bonus in the first year, Hutson’s performance bonus cap for his second year rose from $950k to $1.5 million.
According to PuckPedia, as the 43rd overall pick in 2024, Hutson has more performance bonuses in his deal than all but the following defenders over the last five draft classes: Matthew Schaefer, Artyom Levshunov, and Simon Nemec. Schaefer was the first overall selection in 2025, Levshunov was the second overall selection in 2024, and Nemec was the second overall selection in 2022.
“I think for anybody, if they went back and did the draft now, they would probably take him higher than where we took him,” Patrick said. “So, I would say based on where we took him and what he has done since, he has exceeded our expectations in a good way.”
If Hutson reaches his potential, he could become a core player of the Capitals for years to come.
The sky is the limit for what Hutson could become with the Capitals. While his early minutes aren’t likely to match what his brother Lane got to start in Montreal, he could see time with the team’s second power-play unit, and that could grow into time with the first unit someday, as we’ve seen Carbery and his staff are not afraid to use two defenders, Chychrun and John Carlson, with one group.
Hutson’s role should only grow from there, as the Capitals only have four defensemen currently under contract through next season. The team could also trade from a strength, the left side of their defense, to help them net the top-six forward they have wanted for almost three years, which would also increase Hutson’s responsibilities.
According to Byron Bader’s model at Hockey Prospecting, Hutson’s pre-NHL production most closely matches that of Ryan Ellis, Bobby Orr, and Phil Housley. The latter two are two of the all-time greatest defenders in hockey history, while Ellis was a widely respected top-four defenseman for the Nashville Predators for a decade.
As for who could be Hutson’s future perfect partner with the Capitals, assistant general manager Ross Mahoney believes that player is already in the team’s system: current Hershey Bears defender Ryan Chesley.
“I think he can play with anyone,” Mahoney told Vogel. “But I think you’re probably looking for a little more of a two-way defenseman, someone who’s probably a little more stay-at-home, which will allow him to showcase those offensive skills even more.
“I kind of laugh too, because I watched Ryan Chesley play as a partner for his older brother two years on the under-17 and under-18 [US National Development Team] program. At some point, you’d think that Ryan and Cole are going to be partners. I have no idea; that’s for the coaches [to decide], but it’s kind of ironic.”
Hutson is also in the perfect age bracket to grow with the many top prospects the Capitals have gathered over the past few seasons, including Leonard, Chesley, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Andrew Cristall, Ilya Protas, Terik Parascak, Leon Muggli, and Lynden Lakovic.
Hutson, who arrived in DC on Sunday night, will first take the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Tuesday at 10:30 am.
He could make his NHL debut as soon as Wednesday night against the Ottawa Senators.
