{"id":542849,"date":"2026-03-15T23:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542849\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:11:08","slug":"capitals-sign-prospect-cole-hutson-to-three-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542849\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals sign prospect Cole Hutson to three-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"cbe677ee-361e-91b4-5cae-6c4c30044743\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/wsh\/washington-capitals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Capitals<\/a> signed top defensive prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/5216918\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cole Hutson<\/a> to a three-year deal Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Hutson&#8217;s contract carries an average annual value of $975,000, the max for an entry-level deal. The 19-year-old, whose sophomore season ended at Boston University on Saturday with a loss to UConn in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East tournament, will burn the first year of his contract in the Capitals&#8217; remaining 14 games this season as they push to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/48207538\/nhl-playoffs-bracket-standings-2026-wild-card-bracket-games-matchups\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/r1628441_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/48119178\/capitals-trade-veteran-defenseman-john-carlson-ducks\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/r1624045_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>Washington was six points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference entering Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Hutson, whose brother <a data-player-guid=\"1e175404-1cae-356c-a431-68c360332059\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/5080230\/lane-hutson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lane Hutson<\/a> is the reigning Calder Trophy winner for the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"4110452f-e35d-14fe-8fbb-cdb21e269149\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/mtl\/montreal-canadiens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a>, was one of Washington&#8217;s second-round picks in the 2024 NHL draft. Cole Hutson led the Terriers in points (32 in 35 games), game-winning goals and overtime goals this season.<\/p>\n<p>Capitals general manager Chris Patrick told ESPN on Saturday that he believes Hutson &#8220;has the ability to turn some heads this season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Capitals made a shocking move at this month&#8217;s trade deadline, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/48119178\/capitals-trade-veteran-defenseman-john-carlson-ducks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sending franchise icon<\/a> <a data-player-guid=\"991cff62-594a-cbd4-22a3-d89baf618be7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/5118\/john-carlson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">John Carlson<\/a> to the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"183c31f7-2eed-15c0-7fa1-a568d20bf3ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/ana\/anaheim-ducks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anaheim Ducks<\/a> after 17 years with the organization. The Capitals have missed the playoffs just twice since 2008 and will await a decision on <a data-player-guid=\"71847c2f-dbf5-92bd-a95f-3857464ad180\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3101\/alex-ovechkin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Ovechkin<\/a>&#8216;s future after the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals signed top defensive prospect Cole Hutson to a three-year deal Sunday. Hutson&#8217;s contract carries an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-542849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}