{"id":93754,"date":"2025-08-24T14:59:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93754\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:59:16","slug":"hutson-missed-usa-orientation-roster-partly-due-to-worlds-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93754\/","title":{"rendered":"Hutson Missed USA Orientation Roster Partly Due to Worlds Snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lane<\/p>\n

Lane Hutson in action for Habs (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

USA Hockey<\/a> stunned the hockey world earlier this week when it didn\u2019t invite the reigning Calder Trophy winner and Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson<\/a> to their Men\u2019s Olympic orientation camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Hutson\u2019s brilliant rookie season (6g, 60a) easily warranted an invite to the camp, right or wrong, stats aren\u2019t always the deciding factor when it comes to building a roster. An NHL source has confirmed that this was the case with Hutson\u2019s omission from the orientation camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t go to the World Championships; that\u2019s the first part and that matters,\u201d the source told RG. \u201cI know that for both Canada and the United States, that weighs heavily on the decision-making because they have such deep talent pools. One could argue that they could both put together two squads and still compete for gold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, other stuff comes into play and showing up for the Worlds when you have the chance, goes a long way to playing in the Olympics. I know a lot of fans and media didn\u2019t believe that when Nick Suzuki wasn\u2019t invited to the Four Nations after he didn\u2019t go to the Worlds, but that was the case then, too. So, if Hutson really wanted to be at this camp, he should\u2019ve been there for the World Championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is the list of the 16 defensemen that USA Hockey invited to their orientation camp:<\/p>\n

Brock Faber (Minnesota Wild), Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks), Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce (New Jersey Devils), Ryan McDonagh (Tampa Bay Lightning), Brady Skjei (Nashville Predators), Adam Fox (New York Rangers), Seth Jones (Florida Panthers), Jacob Slavin (Carolina Hurricanes), Noah Hanifan (Vegas Golden Knights), Jackson Lacombe (Anaheim Ducks), Neal Pionk (Winnipeg Jets), Alex Vlasic (Chicago Blackhawks), Charlie McAvoy (Boston Bruins), Jake Sanderson (Ottawa Senators) and Zach Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets).<\/p>\n

Three of those players, Jackson Lacombe, Brady Skjei, and Alex Vlasic, helped USA Hockey win gold at the World Championships this past May.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Team USA showed the same consistency when it came to the selection of their forwards, surprising many with the selection of Frank Nazar, who just signed a seven-year extension<\/a> with the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

Nazar, who had a fantastic end to the season and a dominant World Championship showing for Team USA, earned a ton of points with management for making the trip and showcasing his talent.<\/p>\n

Roster Not Final<\/p>\n

According to the source above, another factor for Hutson not being invited to the orientation camp was the fact that USA Hockey has a plethora of \u2018small\u2019 defenseman who play the same offensive-minded game that he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the Four Nations roster and the heavy emphasis on size and being physical, and USA just didn\u2019t want to overload on smaller players on the back end,\u201d the source said. \u201cOf course, one could argue there\u2019s a strong case that they\u2019re better off with Hutson than Luke Hughes, and I get that. But the only other small defenseman, Quinn Hughes, is arguably their best defenseman \u2014 at least offensively \u2014 and they\u2019re not bumping him, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing this source stressed, though, as others have stressed as well, this is not a training camp and there will be no on-ice activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe roster isn\u2019t getting decided there, and no one is getting cut,\u201d the source said. \u201cAll of that will be decided from October to December on the ice. So, if Hutson goes out and does what he did for long stretches last season, then I still think because of the injury history of some of the guys going to camp, he has a chance to make the Olympic roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

For someone like Lane Hutson, who was already motivated going into a contract year, this just adds even more fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone like Lane has been doubted his entire life and he\u2019s proven them wrong at every step,\u201d said another source close to the Canadiens<\/a>. \u201cThis can only help push him to hit the ground running this season, which will only benefit him and the Canadiens moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Canadiens look to punch their ticket back to the playoffs again this season, a motivated Hutson will be a major piece in getting them there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lane Hutson in action for Habs (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images) USA Hockey stunned the hockey world earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-93754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}