Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Hockey teams still have plenty of time to firm up their roster ahead of the Winter Olympics in Italy next year. However, it looks like Lane Hutson, the NHL player who won Rookie of the Year honors last season, won’t be playing for Team USA—and his dad hinted he could end up suiting up for Canada instead as result.
The men’s hockey team representing the United States hasn’t earned a gold medal at the Winter Olympics since the squad that pulled off “The Miracle on Ice” at Lake Placid in 1980 earned a spot at the top of the podium, and next year, Team USA will have the chance to end a drought that will span more than 45 years when The Games descend upon Italy.
Finland will head into the competition as the reigning champion after taking home gold for the very first time in Beijing in 2022. However, Canada, the team that has historically been the team to beat (especially in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union), will once again have the biggest target on its back once things get underway.
The guys with a maple leaf on the front of their jersey will have a team led by superstars including Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby. There’s no telling what the official roster will look like, but Canada certainly isn’t hurting for talent—and it sounds like there’s a chance they could end up landing a rising American star who may have been jilted by his home country.
Lane Hutson’s dad said the Calder Cup winner could leverage his dual citizenship to play for Canada in the Winter Olympics after he wasn’t invited to Team USA’s orientation camp
The United States will also bring a formidable squad to the Winter Olympics that will undoubtedly boast big names including Auston Matthews, Quinn Hughes, and Brady and Matthew Tkachuk. Only time will tell who will join the crew, but we got a glimpse at some of the other names in the mix thanks to the 44 players who were invited to attend the orientation camp that was held in Michigan at the end of August.
That group did not include Lane Hutson, who became just the third American to win the Calder Memorial Trophy (the award that signifies the NHL’s Rookie of the Year) in the past 15 years after the defenseman put up 66 points during his first full season as a member of the Canadiens.
The 21-year-old Hutson was born and raised in Michigan and played college hockey at Boston University before making his debut in Montreal, but he’s also a Canadian citizen courtesy of his father Rob, a Manitoba native who played professional hockey for close to a decade but never came close to cracking the NHL.
Rob made it clear he was not thrilled to learn his son wasn’t invited to the aforementioned camp during a recent appearance on the Recrutes HabsCast where he said there’s a chance he could end up lacing up his skates for Canada at the Winter Olympics as a result.
The elder Hutson wasn’t afraid to share his thoughts on the situation, saying:
“I think he should have been invited. I think our family, as a whole, has made a big commitment to Team USA hockey throughout the years.
I don’t know what Bill Guerin was thinking. I don’t know him, and he probably doesn’t know Lane. I get it, and people don’t always make the right decisions.
We have to live with how they see it. We don’t have to agree with it. Obviously, this fuels anyone, especially if you’re as competitive as Lane is… There’s no animosity towards it. They have the opportunity to make the decisions they made, so be it…
You never know what happens in the future. My boys are also Canadian.”
It seems a bit hard to imagine Canada would end up in a situation where it makes space for Hutson in 2026 given the players it already has at its disposal (Rob dismissed the notion that Lane and Quinn Hughes fit the same archetype, but many hockey fans would dispute that claim).
This is also coming from Rob as opposed to Lane, and while it seems a little hard to imagine Hutson would opt to play for Canada at some point after 2026 out of spite, it doesn’t sound like it’s out of the realm of possibility.