- Cole Hutson says he has always had big shoes to fill behind Lane and Quinn
- BU coach Jay Pandolfo expects him to produce for the Capitals right away
- Read below for what Hutson said about the Hughes brothers
Cole Hutson has spent his whole life a step behind two older brothers. He sounds fine with it.
The Capitals defenseman was asked at the NHLPA Rookie Showcase in Chicago on July 29 what it is like following Lane and Quinn into pro hockey. “I’ve always had big shoes to fill my whole life,” the 20-year-old told Tracey Myers of NHL.com. “So, it’s just another one of those things where our parents are super proud of us and it’s just a lot of fun to get going.”
Those shoes are enormous. Lane, 22, won the Calder Trophy in 2024-25 and has 146 points in 166 games with Montreal. Quinn, 24, is a forward who has spent the past two seasons in Edmonton’s system and has six NHL games on his ledger.
Take a look at the night the whole Hutson family gathered to surprise Lane with the rookie of the year hardware:
Washington got a 14-game look at the youngest one in March. Hutson put up 10 points (three goals, seven assists) after leaving Boston University, and he did it despite spending his debut morning shaking in a pregame meeting seat.
His brothers were on the phone constantly in the days before that first game, and almost none of the talk was hockey.
“We didn’t really talk much about hockey, just more off-ice stuff like just what we were doing, having fun, playing Xbox with each other,” he said.
Here is analyst Byron Bader charting Cole’s development curve against Lane’s on the day Washington signed him:
Myers also asked Hutson which hockey family his own has studied. The answer was the one that beat them to it.
“Our family personally, we’ve looked up to the Hughes a lot. They’re in the same boat, close in age,” Hutson said. “Watching what they’ve done for USA Hockey, too, winning the gold is really cool.”
Quinn and Jack Hughes won Olympic gold with the United States in February, the first for the Americans since 1980.
Jay Pandolfo has a better read on the Hutsons than most. The Boston University coach had Lane for two years and Cole for two more, including a 32-point season in 35 games last winter, and he was asked what Washington is actually getting.
“He’s just so gifted offensively and the forward group that Washington is building. They have size and with them being able to protect pucks in the offensive zone and Cole being able to move around the offensive zone and make plays and how good he’ll be on that power play, I don’t see how he’s not going to be productive right away,” Pandolfo said.
Showing up for each other is a habit in this house. Lane flew to Ottawa in December 2024 to watch Cole rack up five assists in a World Juniors win over Germany, then flew to Florida to rejoin the Canadiens:
Hutson told Myers that training camp “can’t come any slower.” It opens next month, and the Capitals have a power play and a top-four spot worth arguing over.
