ARLINGTON, VA — For Cole Hutson, signing his NHL contract meant getting to know a lot of new faces. His college schedule prevented him from attending training camps since the Capitals drafted him in 2024, and though the team checked in on him regularly, he didn’t meet most of his teammates until arriving in DC.
Ryan Leonard, however, Hutson knew well. Hutson and Leonard played together at the US National Team Development Program as teenagers, then became rivals at Boston University and Boston College, and now get to be teammates once again in DC. The pair kept in close contact even when playing for different leagues.
“I would text Leno pretty much every day,” Hutson told RMNB. “We’re pretty close off the ice. So we’d always reach out to one another, just talking about life and whatnot.”
Leonard was the first to reach out to Hutson after he signed — telling reporters he’d texted even before the move was official — and the pair caught up during Hutson’s first afternoon in DC. In the days since, the pair have taken to playing Fortnite together in their time off the ice.
“(We’ve been playing the) past five days,” Hutson said. “Playing quite a bit… We’ve been playing builds lately. We started off no builds, and then we were like, all right, let’s move into builds. We’re getting better.”
To hear Hutson tell it, he’s the better Fortnite player of the two, though they’ve also teamed up for the game’s Duos mode.
“(Leonard’s) not too bad,” Hutson acknowledged. “But we do some where he’s the bait guy, and I kill everyone, so it’s fun.”
Getting to play for the Capitals together has proven a boon for both Hutson and Leonard. Having Leonard available as a familiar face is an obvious benefit for Hutson as he navigates the newness of the NHL, but even for Leonard, now nearly a year into his NHL career, Hutson’s presence has only made him more secure.
“Knowing each other going into this definitely helps him and helps the transition that he has to make,” Leonard said earlier this week. “It’s also comfortable for me too, right? Knowing him already and putting another familiar face already on this tight-knit team helps a lot.”
The rest of the Capitals, too, have welcomed Hutson in with open arms, even before he put ink to paper. The team touched base with Hutson on a regular basis during his season at BU, and having an NHL team so invested in his wellbeing only bolstered his confidence.
“Someone from the team or coaching staff would reach out probably every few days, and that was awesome,” he said. “It was a good feeling, knowing I was wanted here all last year, which was awesome…(They were) mostly just checking in and seeing how I’m doing.”
That support was especially appreciated when Hutson sustained a frightening injury at World Juniors in December, taking a puck to the back of his head before leaving the ice on a stretcher. Even without having met him, many the Capitals offered their well-wishes to their future teammate.
“A lot of the guys reached out after my injury at World Juniors, so that was unbelievable,” Hutson recalled. “It just shows the kind of locker room that we have here.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois later invited Hutson to move in after he signed his NHL deal, much as he did for Ryan Leonard in his early days with the Capitals.
“It’s awesome,” Hutson said. “His wife’s amazing. Yeah, it’s starting a good bond. He’s got two dogs there right now. It’s a blast living there.”
Hutson has even spent some time gaming together with Dubois, though there’s no word yet on whether he’s joined Hutson and Leonard in their Fortnite pursuits.
“We played a little bit of Xbox. We did, like, the Olympics on PS5 where we played golf, baseball..that was a blast.”
