Lane Hutson’s first NHL assist came in his first game with the Canadiens at the end of the 2023-24 season when he joined the team for the final two games of the regular season after leaving Boston University.
Brendan Gallagher scored the goal 4:25 into the first period of what ended up being a 5-4 overtime loss to the Red Wings in Detroit.
“One thing I’ll remember when I got an assist on his goal, he let me go first in the line (to the bench to celebrate),” Hutson recalled after the Canadiens practised Thursday in Brossard. “It’s a small thing, but it’s pretty cool that a guy like that was doing that and taking care of the younger guys.
“Like any young guy who has come in when he’s been here, he makes you feel so comfortable right away,” Hutson added. “He wants you to be a part of the team. It’s fun being around him.”
Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher is the team’s oldest player at 33 and has one more season left on his contract with a US$6.5 million salary-cap hit. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
Things haven’t been fun for Gallagher recently. The 33-year-old, who is in his 14th season with the Canadiens, was made a healthy scratch for four consecutive games before playing in the regular-season finale, a 4-2 loss to the Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Gallagher scored his seventh goal of the season and his first in 20 games and was one of the team’s best players.
Judging by the forward lines at practice Thursday, Gallagher won’t be in the lineup when the Canadiens open their first-round playoff series against the Lightning Sunday in Tampa. The fourth line had Phillip Danault at centre between Josh Anderson and Jake Evans.
Father Time is undefeated and Gallagher is starting to lose the battle after a lot of tough miles and injuries on his 5-foot-9, 185-pound body. He has a hard time keeping up with the fast-paced style the Canadiens play now, but he won’t go down without a fight and he showed that in Philadelphia.
“I’m really close with him and it’s not been the easiest of times for him,” Evans told reporters in Philadelphia after playing on the fourth line with Gallagher and Joe Veleno. “When I saw I was playing with him I knew what we were getting tonight. He’s just a true competitor and a great teammate. When he gets out on the ice wearing that jersey he’s giving it his all and he did that again tonight.”
You have to wonder if the game in Philadelphia might have been the last for Gallagher with the Canadiens.
The oldest player on the team has one more season left on his contract with a US$6.5 million salary-cap hit and he wants to play. It will be interesting to see if Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes tries to trade him this summer somewhere he can play next season while eating some of his salary, or looks to buy out the final year of his contract, making Gallagher a free agent.
Gallagher’s situation reminds me of Denis Savard when the Canadiens won their last Stanley Cup in 1993. Savard wasn’t happy about being scratched for the last four games of the Cup final against the Los Angeles Kings, but head coach Jacques Demers brought him behind the bench as an assistant.
After the Canadiens won the Cup Savard was in tears and hugged Demers, saying: “I won my Stanley Cup!”
Savard, who was 32 at the time, would go on to play four more seasons in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks.
“I’m sure he’s not done,” Danault said about his good friend Gallagher after a recent game in which he was scratched. “But it’s the game. It’s fast and it changes a lot. Gally’s got 900 games. He’s played so much and played with his heart on the line every single night. It’s a business at the end of the day, too. It’s not easy for anybody and especially for a guy like that.”
When the Canadiens started their rebuild more than four years ago it wasn’t great timing for Gallagher, who was at a point where he wanted to win a Stanley Cup before his career was over. Now that the Canadiens are getting closer to reaching that ultimate goal with the rebuild ahead of schedule, he is getting pushed to the side by younger players.
But the Canadiens wouldn’t be where they are now without Gallagher. What he did for Hutson after the defenceman’s first NHL assist speaks volumes about his impact on the young players.
“Gally has been great to me the whole time,” said Juraj Slafkovsky, who joined the Canadiens as an 18-year-old after being the No. 1 overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft. “I don’t sit far away from him in the locker room. Just hanging out with him around the rink talking, the hockey stuff, the way I should play, that’s one thing. But just hanging out with him and making all these jokes. He really makes you feel good around this team. … He’s been great to me and I’m sure all the other guys that came at the same time as me can say the same.”
Maybe we will see Gallagher in the lineup at some point in the playoffs and you know exactly what you’ll get from him. We saw that in Philadelphia.
Whatever happens, the impact Gallagher has had on the young Canadiens will continue to be felt long after he’s gone.