Our crack squad released the seventh edition of the NHL player tiers project Wednesday, and the Montreal Canadiens fare quite well: seven of the NHL’s top 150 players, with captain Nick Suzuki topping the team’s list in the 2B franchise player tier.Of course, as is always the case when he finds himself on any list, Lane Hutson’s placement will probably be the source of the most debate.Hutson was placed in the 2C tier, meaning he is on the third rung of franchise players in the league. He is also the 11th NHL defenceman on the list — ahead of several excellent players, but far behind his sixth-place finish in Norris Trophy voting in his second full year in the league. It is worth noting that at age 22, Hutson is the second-youngest defenceman of the 18 listed in the first three tiers, behind only New York Islanders Calder Trophy winner Matthew Schaefer, who debuts on the list at the bottom of tier 2A.I personally don’t have an issue with where Hutson slots in on the list. In fact, for a player just starting his second NHL contract with his best years still ahead of him, Hutson is very high. It’s important to note the process for our player tier panel, which includes Dom Luszczyszyn, Shayna Goldman, Sean Gentille, Harman Dayal and Thomas Drance. That process begins with Luszczyszyn’s player evaluation model producing a Net Rating for all players, then moves on to an internal debate among the panel to flesh out some of the disagreements they might have with the model, and then takes that preliminary list to a group of more than 20 people connected to the game today, including executives, coaches, scouts and former players. The list adjusts from there to account for their input.It is not a list that was simply thrown together, in other words.During the final phase of that process, the panel gathers anonymous quotes from the people they consulted. We’d like to explore one of the quotes included in the Hutson blurb.“I like Hutson where he is, because he’s still incomplete,” one executive said. “Don’t forget Quinn Hughes didn’t f—ing defend at all (early in his career). They had to protect him. They had to make sure he played against the right lines, played in the right zones, had the right partner. Now look at him.”That is not necessarily a negative comment. In fact, it appears to be meant as a compliment that Hutson still has room to grow and round out his game, much like Hughes has. Still, there is an inherent assessment in that quote, and in the comparison to Hughes’ early years, that Hutson can’t defend and needs to be sheltered.I asked our panel if there were any other quotes they gathered that didn’t make the cut but came to that same assessment. The answer was no. In fact, most of the responses they gathered viewed Hutson’s defence in a positive light, especially after the Canadiens’ playoff run last spring.“People say he still has room to improve defensively, but I’ll tell you what: You watch that playoffs, and he didn’t hurt the Montreal Canadiens in their own end,” one coach said. “If the puck is loose, he’s either going to retrieve it and go, or he’s going to start the rush, and to me, that’s defending.”To which you can add this from a scout: “People worry about his ability to defend, (but) I didn’t see that against Tampa. I thought he was really, really good.”This always seems to be the debate with Hutson. Any of his defensive attributes are always tagged with the qualifier “for his size.” And the reality is you could view Hutson as being sheltered because he generally doesn’t get the toughest matchups and starts most of his shifts in the offensive zone.If you watch Hutson defend, though, it quickly becomes clear he is not just adequate defensively — he is quite effective, and his usage can be explained by the fact the Canadiens need him to generate offence. That’s why he starts shifts in the offensive zone. That’s why he gets secondary matchups. That’s why he doesn’t kill penalties.