With a three-point effort on Monday night versus the Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens skater Lane Hutson now leads all NHL rookies in points, with three goals and 27 assists in 40 games.

Considering he’s a defenceman, it’s a rather impressive showing from the 20-year-old player, especially since he’s trending toward one of the most productive seasons from a rookie defenceman in recent NHL history, connoting the Calder Trophy conversation is sure to make its way to the forefront in the near future.

He’s currently on pace for 61 points, which would be the first time a rookie defenceman reached the 60-point mark since Nicklas Lidstrom, who is arguably the best blueliner to play in the league since Bobby Orr or Larry Robinson. I’d go as far as arguing he was actually better than both, but that’s a topic for another day, and we all know it’s very difficult to compare players over different eras.

Keeping Context At The Forefront

With that in mind, we’re going to compare players from different eras, a cardinal sin in hockey analysis, in a bid to establish the value of Hutson’s hot start.

Before we get going, I’d like to remind everyone this is far from a scientific calculation. For broad strokes purposes, we’ll compare the first 40 games in the NHL from various high-end defencemen, including some of the best in league history. The players picked for the comparison are very arbitrary, with the only common theme being they’re top-end defencemen.

There are a few other things to keep in mind as we discuss blue line production. Not every defenceman is used in the same role, and usage is crucial when it comes to establishing a neutral baseline for comparisons. We’re also going to discuss production in all situations, as the 5v5 data for players such as Brian Leetch and Bobby Orr is rather difficult to come by.

Additionally, not all the players listed below were the same age when they played 40 games, another important factor.

Finally, we removed partial seasons from the list. For example, Hutson’s first two NHL games aren’t included, even if he did register two points. Nor are Chris Chelios’ 12 games from 1983-84. We’re only taking a look at their production during their first full season that included 40 games.

Via Montreal Hockey Now

There are a few things that immediately stand out from the list.

Hutson isn’t the most productive player by any means, but he’s definitely in great company. Cale Makar’s early production is so impressive that he ranks among some of those first-ballot Hall of Fame defenceman, while Brian Leetch’s ridiculous rookie scoring pace will probably stand at the top of the list for the foreseeable future.

Either way, the fact that Hutson is sandwiched between Orr, Quinn Hughes, Chelios, and Makar bodes rather well for the rest of his career.

Lane Hutson 5v5 Production

We do have access to 5v5 stats from some modern defencemen on the list, which allows us to avoid many of the variables that factored into the first comparison.

After all, powerplay production is great, but most of the game is played at 5v5.

Via Montreal Hockey Now

As you can see, not only is Hutson the busiest player in the list, he ranks quite well compared to his present-day NHL counterparts when it comes to points per 60 at 5v5.

There’s obviously more to playing in the NHL than generating points, but almost every Stanley Cup champion has had a player of Hutson’s ilk in their lineup, and most of the players listed above also dealt with a cacophony of criticism from jealous fan bases that couldn’t see the forest for the trees when evaluating defensive and offensive impact from puck-moving defencemen.

Besides, now that he’s had a few months to acclimatize to his new team, or more accurately, his new team has had a few months to acclimatize to him, Hutson’s defensive numbers are improving by leaps and bounds.

Of course, there’s still some work to be done in that regard, and if Hutson’s teammates did a little better job capitalizing on the endless stream of high-danger chances he creates, he’d likely be closer to 40 or 50 points, but the fact of the matter is that Hutson isn’t just producing a lot of points, he’s keeping pace with some of the best rookie defencemen in the league, past and present.

All Lane Hutson statistics via NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick.