Two sets of brothers will be on the ice at Capital One Arena on Wednesday night.
As the Protas siblings line up again for the Washington Capitals, their teammate, Cole Hutson, will face off against his older brother, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson, for the first time in the NHL.
The Hutsons seemed more focused on helping their teams earn two points than the sentimentality of the matchup, while speaking to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
“It will be cool, for sure, but it’s just going to be another game,” Lane said. “We’ve got to find a way to get some wins. Yeah, it will be cool for me and my brother. But I’m excited for it.”
“I’ve been battling him my whole life, so I kind of know what he’s going to do,” Cole added. “And, hopefully, we come out with the win.”
The Capitals and Canadiens enter the game on opposite ends of the spectrum in recent form: Montreal has won their last two outings, while Washington has dropped both. The Canadiens won their Frozen Frenzy battle against the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in a shootout, while the Caps dropped theirs 4-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Lane was a primary driver of Montreal’s win, recording two points (1g, 1a) and playing a team-high 27:07 of ice time. Cole didn’t add to his season point total in Washington’s loss, having his first shotless game of the year, taking a minor penalty for delay of game, and receiving 19:12 of ice time from head coach Spencer Carbery.
Hutson brothers 2026-27 NHL stats
| Player | GP | TOI/GP | G | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lane Hutson | 6 | 26:49 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Cole Hutson | 6 | 18:42 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
The two brothers are at very different stages in their NHL careers, with the elder Lane already eclipsing the 75-point threshold last season and finishing sixth in Norris Trophy voting. Meanwhile, Cole is playing his first full season with the Capitals, building on his 10 points (3g, 7a) in 14 game debut at the end of last year.
“He’s having a pretty good year,” Lane said. “It’s fun to watch. I’m so proud of him. I’m really not all that surprised. He’s been doing that for so long, so it’s nothing new for him.”
The two brothers, who have another brother in an NHL organization, Quinn Hutson of the Edmonton Oilers, have always supported each other despite no longer being on the same team. During the 2025 playoffs, Cole, then just a Capitals prospect, attended Game 3 of a first-round series between the Caps and Habs wearing a Canadiens-themed Christmas sweater.
“I feel like I’ll be cheering for – I mean, I’m going to be sitting in Lane’s seats, so I’ll probably be up on my feet when both teams score, to be honest,” Cole said then. “I think, obviously, I’ll cheer for Lane a bit more than the Capitals, but hopefully I’ll be in the Capitals’ seat in a few years. When it comes playoff time, if we ever play the Canadiens again, I hope both my parents are rooting for me, and I think we’ll take them down, for sure.”
The Hutson parents, Rob and Julie, plan to attend the festivities in DC on Wednesday night.
“I’m pretty positive that whoever doesn’t win is not going to be happy,” Rob told Gulitti. “And when I say not happy, they’re going to really not be happy. But, at the same time, some time will go by, and they’ll be fine. But there’s always going to be that live-in-the-now of like, ‘Hey, I beat you last time.’ That’ll be hanging out there until the next time.”
The game is the first of three this season that Lane and Cole will play against each other, with the Capitals and Canadiens meeting again in Washington on January 19 and wrapping up their season series in Montreal on February 13.
