When hockey influencer Mike Bartner posted a 2022 redraft across his social media platforms Sunday, it sparked a heated debate.
Bartner had Utah Mammoth center Logan Cooley going first overall. Montreal Canadiens fans, who are known as some of the most passionate — and vocal — in the league, took offense to that.
The Canadiens had the first-overall pick that year, but funny enough, their fans weren’t arguing that Juraj Slafkovský, whom they selected with that pick, should go first in the redraft. They were touting Montreal’s late-second-round choice, Lane Hutson.
Bartner had Hutson at No. 2, and declared in the post that it was a razor-thin margin between him and Cooley, but it wasn’t enough to fend off the angry Habs fans.
Let’s figure this out, without the bias that comes with being a fan of one of the involved teams. I’ll state the facts. The conclusion is up to you.
Disclaimers
- I watched every single game Cooley played this year.
- I voted for Hutson to win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
The case for Logan Cooley
Points are meaningful, but they’re meaningless if you can’t keep the puck out of your own net. That’s a message Mammoth head coach André Tourigny peddles, and Cooley has fully accepted it.
Cooley only just turned 21, but he already plays significant time on the penalty kill. At critical moments in close games, he was almost always on the ice, whether Utah was up a goal or down a goal.
He’s uber-competitive, and that manifests itself in his play at both ends of the ice.
Of course, he’s also a rising star on the offensive side of the puck. Again, he hasn’t played an NHL game since being old enough to legally order a drink in the U.S., and he already has a 25-goal, 65-point season in his back pocket.
For context, that’s nearly identical to the production of fellow budding superstars Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini (though they’re one and two years younger than him, respectively).
Cooley doesn’t get as much recognition as some of his comparable peers for two reasons: He’s not a flashy, highlight-reel scorer and he plays in a market with significantly fewer eyeballs on it than many. But neither of those things change his level of efficiency.
The case for Lane Hutson
As an undersized defenseman with a little more than a point per game at the U.S. National Team Development Program, Hutson’s critics were probably louder than his supporters. But as strongly as teams believe that you can’t win without big defensemen, it’s hard to overlook the fact that the consensus top two d-men in the world are at or below 6 feet.
Offensively, there’s nothing left to be desired in Hutson’s game. He tied Larry Murphy for the all-time assists record by a rookie defenseman, and he placed fourth all-time in points by a first-year blue-liner. There’s little doubt he’ll perennially be among the league’s top offensive defensemen for years to come.
The Hutson debate revolves around the defensive side of his game. While the advanced stats show that he got better as the year progressed, he still has much to prove if he’s going to solidify himself as a No. 1 defenseman.
Keep in mind that 2024 Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes faced the same criticism when he first entered the league, but is now hailed as one of the best defenders, even before looking at his out-of-this-world offensive stats.
Who else is in the conversation?
Juraj Slafkovský
The expectations that come with being picked first overall are huge — especially when you’re expected to save such a storied franchise as the Canadiens.
Slafkovský is a productive, young NHL player. Had he been, say, the fifth-overall pick, the perception would be that he’s right where he should be in his development. But because he was first, people expect him to be a superstar now or never.
There’s a good chance that Slafkovský will break out one of these days, and once he does, maybe he reenters the debate for first overall in a redraft.
Shane Wright
Remember when Shane Wright fell to fourth after being the consensus first-overall pick since age 15? It shocked the hockey world then, but three years later, it seems the GMs who passed up on him weren’t exactly out of their minds.
Like Slafkovský, Wright probably needs a few more years to really show what he is. He’s spent a lot of time in the AHL, where he put up good, but not dominant numbers. When he finally saw his first full NHL season last year, he produced at a similar rate to Cooley in his rookie season (though Wright did it at an older age).
Once he fully blossoms, though, Wright could take back the first overall mantle that he held for so much of his youth.
Dark horse: Sam Rinzel
He’s only played nine NHL games so far, so nobody is arguing that Sam Rinzel is better than Cooley, Hutson or any other player on this list — yet.
But in those nine games, he’s already tallied five assists, and he’s a defenseman. I’m certainly considering putting him in my preseason predictions article as the 2026 rookie of the year (which is what I did with Hutson last year).
Again, time will tell how good this player actually is, but don’t count him out.
