Cole Hutson‘s unique style was on full display during his NHL debut with the Washington Capitals on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old defender took to the ice inside Capital One Arena with his all-white Bauer Proto2 stick, rocking a full black “sock” tape job.
The contrasting colors sparked discussion about how his stick looked, even drawing attention from the NHL’s main social media accounts.
“Thoughts on @colehutson23’s black tape job on his all-white stick? 👀 Sty?” the NHL captioned a photo on Instagram.
A sock tape job is where a player fully tapes the blade and hosel (where the blade meets the shaft) of their sticks. While Hutson’s tape may be even further down his stick shaft now, he has done a similar tape job at least since the Capitals selected him in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft.
At his first development camp in 2024, Hutson used the inverse of what he had in his debut: a black stick with white tape. He also used a puck to create distinct designs on the tape on his blade, which he picked up from teammate Ryan Leonard, who started marking his white tape with pucks while playing at Boston College.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was asked Thursday morning to give his take on Hutson’s unique style choice. The former minor-league enforcer spoke about how he has noticed younger players shifting the trends with their stick tape over the past few years.
“The color, I don’t really mind, the black on the white stick,” Carbery said. “The interesting thing, I’d be curious to go around the league, they were actually–on Sportsnet when I was watching the game this morning, they were talking about Stutzle’s unique tape job, and then they went over to Hutson’s unique tape job. A lot of young players are going to the full (sock). Oh my god, I can’t wrap my head around that.
“I’m like, ‘There’s no function for it up there,’ and my head goes like, ‘You’re adding weight to your stick.’ I remember you started to see that a few years ago, where young players are going all the way up the hosel. I can’t get around that, but it works for them.”
Given how well Hutson performed in his debut, including scoring his first NHL goal, he probably has free rein to do whatever he wants with his sticks. Carbery concurred with a similar sentiment when told that Pierre-Luc Dubois said a player can tape his stick however he chooses when he has hands like Hutson.
“That is a great way to put it,” Carbery said. “You tape your stick however you would like.”
Hutson will get his second look at the NHL against the New Jersey Devils on Friday night. To match his older brother Lane Hutson‘s first two NHL games, he’ll need to use his stylish stick to notch himself another point.
