Latest news with #Hutson
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Lane Hutson's next contract with Canadiens is minefield that might need to wait
As the Montreal Canadiens work on organizing their financial structure for the coming seasons in a rising salary-cap world, there are two players' contracts they will need to plan for that are somewhat abstract. The first is Lane Hutson, and the second is Ivan Demidov. The Canadiens are still a year away from needing to worry about Demidov's contract, and he still has a lot to prove. But in Hutson's case, he could sign a new contract as of July 1, and he has already proven a lot at the NHL level. Advertisement He is the type of play-driving, puck-moving defenceman the modern game requires, but he also doesn't fit the archetype of the big, bruising defenceman that playoff hockey requires. To be fair, there aren't really any defencemen who fit both categories, and there are few in the NHL who fit the first category as well as Hutson. But the second category is something that will also surely come into play in the Canadiens' evaluation of what Hutson's next contract looks like, and there are different examples of how to approach his second contract across the NHL. Hutson mentioned in his exit interview with the media that he would like to have his contract settled sooner rather than later, and part of that is because he is frankly uncomfortable talking about it. The longer his next contract remains unsettled, the longer he will have to answer questions about it. But when general manager Kent Hughes was asked about Hutson's contract at his end-of-season news conference, he didn't make it sound like it was an urgent matter that necessarily required immediate attention and made a point of mentioning that this administration waited for the end of Cole Caufield's entry-level contract before negotiating an extension, while Juraj Slafkovský and Kaiden Guhle each signed as soon as they were eligible last summer. 'For sure we'll talk to his agent,' Hughes said. 'I saw that he mentioned he'd like to get his contract settled sooner rather than later. So we'll call his agent and we'll see. But it's not like it's a priority. I find it's important to communicate, to learn what's important to Lane, and from there we'll see if there's a way to agree on a contract. With Cole, we waited to the end of his (entry-level) contract. With Slaf and Guhle, it happened with a year left. So, I think we'll start talking and see where it goes.' Advertisement What happened with Slafkovský and Guhle was that they accepted contract terms that were viewed as somewhat team-friendly by the Canadiens. They were comfortable with the annual average value for Slafkovský ($7.6 million) and Guhle ($5.55 million), even if it represented a bit of a risk. So when Hughes mentions learning 'what's important to Lane,' this is surely what he means. Is Hutson willing to work with the Canadiens on accepting less money and falling in line with their internal salary structure in exchange for the security of a long-term contract? Or will he look to be paid what his production in his rookie NHL season demonstrated he is worth, particularly in the context of a rising salary cap? Looking at this in the most basic terms possible, it is not very difficult to find a group of comparable players to Hutson that we can use as a basis for this exercise. Filtering NHL defencemen who are 26 years old or younger, played at least 50 games and had at least 0.5 points per game last season (remember, Hutson had 66 points in 82 games as a rookie in his age-20 season) gives us a list of 14 players. Of those, three were still on their entry-level contracts: Hutson, Luke Hughes and Jackson LaCombe. That leaves 11 defencemen playing on their second or third contracts to use as a basis for comparison: Rasmus Dahlin, Cale Makar, Moritz Seider, Mikhail Sergachev, Miro Heiskanen, Owen Power, Jake Sanderson, Quinn Hughes, Noah Dobson, Thomas Harley and Evan Bouchard. That might seem like a random order in which to list those players, but it's not. They are listed in order of the cap hits on their current contracts, from a high of $11 million for Dahlin to a low of $3.9 million for Bouchard. That list represents three different approaches to a second NHL contract. The bottom three names on the list — Dobson, Harley and Bouchard — as well as Dahlin and Sergachev, signed two- or three-year bridge contracts out of entry-level, with Dobson and Bouchard due for new contracts this summer and Harley up next summer. All three of them are about to become very rich men. Sergachev signed his third contract in 2022 for eight years at $8.5 million per coming off a three-year bridge deal at $4.8 million a year. Dahlin signed his eight-year, $88 million contract in 2023, also coming off a three-year bridge at $6 million a year. Dobson, Harley and Bouchard each signed bridge deals at or just below $4 million a year, with Dobson signing for three years and the other two for two years. Advertisement Both Makar and Hughes signed six-year deals out of entry-level a couple of months apart in 2021 that walked them right to unrestricted free agency, with Makar's contract buying one UFA year and Hughes' none. They signed for $9 million and $7.85 million a year, respectively, and both can hit the UFA market in 2027. Their next contracts will be monsters, but they also demonstrate a mechanism to keep the cap hit reasonable while locking in prime years. The trade-off is the stress in Vancouver about what Hughes will choose to do when his contract expires, and the Avalanche having to trade away Mikko Rantanen in anticipation of Makar's next contract. The rest of the players on that list — Seider, Heiskanen, Power and Sanderson — signed long-term right out of entry-level. For many reasons aside from this very rudimentary exercise, Sanderson's eight-year contract worth $8.05 million a year signed in 2023 can serve as a basis for comparison here, and demonstrates why this could be a complicated negotiation between Hutson's camp and the Canadiens. It would be easy for Hutson's representatives to argue he is a more productive player than Sanderson and is therefore worth more than him. That's not a knock on Sanderson, of course, since only three defencemen in NHL history had a more productive rookie season than Hutson's 66 points this season. But it would be just as easy for the Canadiens to argue Sanderson fits both categories of defencemen described above, merging a play-driving puck-mover with a big body who can drive playoff success. For instance, no defenceman who played at least 75 minutes at five-on-five in these playoffs had a higher offensive zone start percentage than Hutson's 87.5 percent, according to Natural Stat Trick. In fact, only two skaters were higher, Washington's Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin at 97.3 (!) percent. The next highest defenceman was Carolina's Shayne Gostisbehere at 78.6 percent. Sanderson, however, only started 47.62 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone in the playoffs, suggesting his value to the Senators goes beyond his production, which is also evident in Sanderson's predominant role on both the power play and penalty kill. The same argument could be made about Seider ($8.55 million) and Power ($8.35 million), though neither of them played in the playoffs. The reality of the NHL, however, is that offence gets you paid, and Hutson's offence is truly special. Combine that reality with the new financial landscape of the NHL with the salary cap expected to rise to $113.5 million by 2027-28 — which would be the second season of Hutson's next contract — and the conditions are ripe for Hutson to seek a big payday based on what he's already demonstrated and also what he is expected to do offensively in the future. Advertisement Sanderson was in the first year of his new contract this season, and it took up 9.15 percent of the $88 million salary cap. That same percentage in 2026-27 — when the cap is expected to be set at $104 million — would represent an AAV of just over $9.5 million on a long-term contract, and that's assuming Hutson's camp doesn't feel he should be paid more than Sanderson. It should also be noted that of the 11 defencemen we are looking at here, Sanderson was one of only two — Power is the other — who signed his second contract before the entry-level deals expired. So if the Canadiens and/or Hutson decided to wait until next year, it would hardly be unprecedented. Something else Hughes said at his end-of-season news conference seems to apply, when he evaluated Slafkovský's season coming off his big contract extension last summer. 'I think he came in this year with new expectations, a new contract, and also sometimes, when you have success for the first time, sometimes you get here and you're not ready for what's waiting for you,' Hughes said. 'You hear often about a sophomore slump, and I think that's something we'll need to pay attention to as a team and not expect we'll be back next season and it will be easy.' All of that could easily apply to Hutson, though if we're being honest, it doesn't seem all that likely. Hutson's ability to adjust and find creative ways to not only survive at his size but find new and innovative ways to thrive has defined his hockey career. There's no reason to believe that will change. But one possible reason why Hughes seemed unrushed in talking about Hutson's next contract is the list of defencemen we looked at for this basic exercise. It is a group of the best young defencemen in the NHL, one that doesn't include Adam Fox because he was a year too old to be included, even if he is likely to be Hutson's closest comparable in terms of size, impact and production. Fox, it is worth noting, signed his seven-year deal at $9.5 million a year in November of 2021, in the midst of a career-high 74-point season and before the expiry of his entry-level contract. If Hutson were able to follow up his tremendous rookie season with an even better sophomore season, would those comparables change much? He's already put himself in very select company. Advertisement If we look at the contracts signed by Hughes since he arrived, one theme has emerged: He often gets what he wants. He wanted a short term on Sam Montembeault's contract, and that's what he got. He wanted a certain number for Jake Evans' contract, and that's what he got. But most notably, he wanted Caufield's and Slafkovský's second contracts to come in under Nick Suzuki's $7.875 million cap number, and that's what he got in both cases. If Hughes wants that to happen again with Hutson, it seems rather evident it won't happen this summer because Hutson would be leaving a significant amount of money on the table if he agreed to something like that, perhaps as much as $2 million a year, or even more. And the threat of a potential offer sheet didn't impact nine of the 11 defencemen we looked at here signing their second contracts at the end of their entry-level deals. In other words, as Hughes suggested a few weeks ago, there is nothing pressing, and it would appear to be in the best interests of both parties to wait and let things play out a little longer.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Orleans Parish DA says sheriff's office 'compromised' amid lawsuit, jailbreak investigation
The district attorney in New Orleans fired back at the local sheriff who sought his recusal from the investigation into a massive 10-man escape from the county's jail, escalating a two-week war of words between the two. After Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, whose department runs the jail, filed a lawsuit seeking to bar Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams from investigating the jailbreak, Williams made clear his thoughts on the sheriff. "After this jailbreak, jail leadership should have immediately requested an independent forensic processing of that scene," he said Thursday evening in a media release. "It's hard not to see this agency as anything but compromised until any bad actors have been identified and rooted out." "The Sheriff's Office's time and resources were clearly misspent this week, and once again, this office finds itself two steps behind the moment," the release continued. New Orleans District Attorney Blasts Sheriff Over Botched Prison Escape Investigation "We, along with our other law enforcement partners, will remain focused on the crisis at hand: recapturing every individual involved in this escape, understanding the systemic failures or individual actions that made it possible, and implementing meaningful corrective measures." Read On The Fox News App Hutson filed a motion in a New Orleans court after what she called "ongoing attacks" on the sheriff's office in "an unprecedented display of political self-serving bias," according to ABC News. The sheriff noted that Williams is also backing her opponent in an upcoming reelection bid to remain the parish's top cop. Last week, Hutson suspended campaign operations to focus on the breakout. The matter was settled out of court on Thursday in a meeting with Orleans Parish Criminal Judge Nandi Campbell. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill's office will continue to lead the investigation into how the men, including a four-time killer and a serial escapee, broke out of their cell and hopped the jail's barbed-wire fence to freedom on May 16. "I will continue to conduct an independent investigation into how the ten violent inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on Friday, May 16," Murrill said in an X post on Thursday night, adding that she will provide recommendations to relevant government entities to ensure such an escape never occurs again. Friday marks two weeks since 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center in New Orleans. Two inmates, including a four-time convicted killer, are still on the loose after the jailbreak. Louisiana Ag Confident Remaining Jailbreak Fugitives Will Be Recaptured After Officials Make 14Th Arrest Derrick Groves was convicted in October of a double-homicide stemming from a shooting during Mardi Gras in 2018. After his conviction, he pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter in unrelated cases and was scheduled to be sentenced in July. He was being held in the jail until his sentencing. Antoine Massey, a four-time escapee known locally for consistently evading law enforcement, also remains free. On Thursday, Crime Stoppers and the FBI both increased their rewards for information leading to the arrests of the pair. Each man now has a $50,000 bounty on his head. The eight other escapees have been caught as local, state and federal law enforcement continue to pour resources into ending the manhunt for good. Fourteen people have been arrested for assisting the escapees either before or after they broke out. Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Hutson, Williams, Murrill and the New Orleans Criminal District Court for article source: Orleans Parish DA says sheriff's office 'compromised' amid lawsuit, jailbreak investigation
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Woodland, Towne Acres getting new principals
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Two Johnson City elementary schools will have new principals for the 2025-26 school year. Johnson City Schools announced Richard Hutson will be the next principal at Towne Acres Elementary. Hutson has been the principal at Cherokee Elementary since 2018. 'I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to join the amazing school community of Towne Acres Elementary School,' Hutson said in a news release. 'I look forward to working with each member during this transition and building on the high level of success they have become accustomed to. Towne Acres has a rich history of academic success, and I am eager to begin working with Dr. Simmons and the faculty and staff to ensure a smooth transition as we prepare for the 2025-2026 school year.' Bitcoin mining impacts Northeast TN from Limestone to Mountain City Prior to his time at Cherokee, Hutson was the principal at Church Hill Elementary School for seven years. Hutson replaces Josh Simmons at Towne Acres, who will now serve as the principal at Woodland Elementary. Simmons took the Woodland role as Karen Reach is retiring at the end of the summer. 'I am extremely excited to be joining the Woodland Elementary community,' Simmons said. 'Woodland has a long history of academic excellence and providing wonderful opportunities for students. They have an amazing team of teachers and staff, and I look forward to working with them to continue to provide an excellent elementary school experience for students. I am excited to work with Dr. Reach over the next month to ensure we have a smooth transition to the 2025-26 school year.' Simmons had been the principal at Towne Acres since 2018. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Two local court advocacy programs for children are revived with legislative funding
An equal justice statue stands outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) Three years after lawmakers put $1 million toward advocacy efforts for children in the court system statewide, two revived nonprofits are starting to support children again. Volunteers with local Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) programs advocate for children who've been removed from their families and placed in state care due to suspected abuse and neglect. The volunteers meet with the children and other contacts, such as teachers, therapists and caseworkers. They also write reports to judges about the children's needs, strengths and interests. 'This process is crucial as it gives the child a voice in the legal proceedings concerning their welfare,' said CASA state director Sara Kelly in an emailed statement. Over 330 CASA volunteers worked with 658 children in 37 counties last year, according to the state Unified Judicial System. Most of the state's 1,049 active cases involving CASA last year — with or without a volunteer — were in the Sioux Falls and Rapid City areas. This is the first time in 16 years that the state has operated CASA organizations in all of its circuit courts. The Sixth Circuit, in central South Dakota, and the Fifth Circuit, representing northeastern South Dakota, closed in 2009. Federal cut to children's advocacy funding 'abandons American children,' says SD nonprofit leader Gloria Hutson, in Aberdeen, was hired to lead the reestablished Fifth Circuit CASA in November last year. She told the state CASA Commission at its Wednesday meeting that three counties within her 10-county jurisdiction have a high case volume: Brown, Walworth and Spink counties. 'The focus these last six months has been on building a solid, sustainable structure while building deep community roots,' Hutson said. Walworth County has a 'disproportionate' number of cases for its population, and many involve the Indian Child Welfare Act, Hutson said. The federal Indian Child Welfare Act sets minimum standards for efforts to reunite tribal children in the state's custody with their families. Walworth county is adjacent to the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservations. As of the end of April, Walworth County had 25 pending cases involving 52 children. Brown County had 32 cases involving 58 children and Spink County had three cases involving three children. Fifty-seven cases were active in the Fifth Circuit last year, and none of the children had CASA representation, according to UJS. Through April this year, the circuit had 61 pending cases involving 117 children, Hutson said. Most of those children still do not have CASA volunteers advocating for them. Fifth Circuit CASA has eight volunteers so far, two of whom are advocating for three children. All the children are younger than 2 years old. Laurie Gill, a former state Department of Social Services secretary who now works with Maxwell Strategy Group, leads CASA for the Sixth Circuit. Gill's firm was hired to lead the nonprofit, and Gill said the contract was renewed recently by the nonprofit's board of directors. Sixth Circuit CASA, which represents 14 counties in central South Dakota, including Hughes County and the state capital city of Pierre, intends to train 10 volunteers this year. The first will be sworn in and assigned cases by June, Gill said. Thirty-nine cases were active in the Sixth Circuit last year. There were 45 pending cases involving 94 children at the end of April, Gill said. Most are in the Pierre/Fort Pierre area. The 2022 funding from the Legislature was a result of lawmakers learning about the holes in South Dakota's CASA coverage, after loosening a requirement to appoint advocates for abused and neglected children in the court system. Lawmakers on the state budget committee approved funding to help restart the two shuttered programs and help existing CASA programs expand. The Fifth and Sixth Circuit organizations have each received $120,000 so far. Another $143,715was awarded to most other CASA programs. The need for volunteers remains one of the biggest challenges for CASA nonprofits across the state, leaders told the commission. Since last year's report, the number of volunteers has dropped from 330 statewide to 318. National CASA guidelines require one staff member to supervise a maximum of 30 volunteers. Each volunteer is assigned one case at a time, typically staying with a case until it's resolved. The Sioux Falls CASA reports 333 children currently on the waiting list to be represented by a volunteer. The Seventh Circuit CASA in Rapid City reports 455 children on its waiting list. The 2022 Legislature appropriated $1 million to the Unified Judicial System to award South Dakota CASA nonprofits with grants to rebuild or expand. About $384,000 – less than 40% of the funds – have been spent so far: $120,000 to the Fifth Circuit CASA in Aberdeen $120,000 to the Sixth Circuit CASA in Pierre $58,400 to the Southeast CASA in Yankton $40,835 to the First Circuit CASA in Mitchell $25,000 to the East Central CASA in Brookings $15,000 to the Sioux Falls Area CASA $2,000 to the Seventh Circuit CASA in Rapid City $2,480.47 in miscellaneous expenses
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Orleans Parish sheriff boasted about jail security days before 10 inmates escaped
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson sent a campaign fundraising email highlighting security at the Orleans Justice Center three days before 10 inmates escaped from the facility, prompting criticism from a lawmaker who wants her to resign. State and federal law enforcement officials have captured five of the 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16. Hutson took accountability for the jailbreak during a New Orleans City Council meeting on Tuesday. "It is deeply troubling to me as your sheriff, and I know it is equally troubling to you and the public that we are sworn to protect. As your sheriff, I take full accountability for this failure, and it is my responsibility to make sure it is addressed with urgency and transparency," she told the council. Three days before 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center, Hutson sent a campaign fundraising email that boasted about security improvements at the jail. Democratic Lawmakers Demand Louisiana Sheriff Resign After 10 Inmates Escape Jail "Since I became Sheriff, we've worked hard to make the Orleans Justice Center safer for everyone," Hutson wrote. "Preventative maintenance is a priority, from taking out things that could be used as weapons to making sure the air conditioning and bathrooms work as they should." Read On The Fox News App In a separate YouTube video included in the email, Hutson said there have been improvements to the Orleans Justice Center since she took over as sheriff. "As we have had a population that is 50% greater than when I got into office, it has taxed all of our systems from air conditioning to plumbing to electric. And we've got to maintain that. And it was not maintained before I got here. So we now have regular preventative maintenance, which you know is much cheaper than actually having to replace a whole system such as an air conditioning system," Hutson said. "We are trying to be a well-run organization as well, put our plans in place, we assessed, put our plan in place, and now we're carrying that forward," Hutson said. Democrat Louisiana House Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, who represents a portion of New Orleans, told Fox News Digital she thinks the campaign email was ironic given it was sent just before 10 inmates escaped. Louisiana Attorney General Expects More Arrests In New Orleans Jail Escape Investigation "My reaction was how ironic that you would send this out, and you seem to be asking for help, but yet you aren't presenting any – I didn't see any solutions being presented. And that is another reason why I don't think she should be sheriff," Freeman said. "But you are the sheriff, the buck stops with you. I mean, I appreciate the sheriff apologized yesterday and took accountability at the City Council meeting, but it took her five, four or five days to actually come to that conclusion. That's unacceptable." Freeman said she called on Hutson to resign because of her alleged leadership failures. "She is a failure of leadership, and her inadequacy in keeping the inmates locked up in prison is a failure at multiple levels. Her one job is to keep those inmates safely in custody and away from the general public and the citizens of our city and our state." Hutson, who's up for re-election in the fall, temporarily suspended her campaign on Tuesday night but didn't drop out. Paul Mauro: New Orleans Jailbreak Exposes Flat Out Failures Of Federal Oversight Freeman's colleague, Rep. Jason Hughes, also called on Hutson to resign. Since 2013, the Orleans Justice Center has operated under a federal consent decree. Every six months, federal jail monitors question deputies at the jail, according to Fox 8. Every time, they wrote reports finding jailers "incapable of describing what an acceptable security check would be like." Kendell Myles, Robert Moody, Gary Price, Dkenan Dennis and Corey Boyd have been recaptured by law enforcement, leaving five inmates at large. Boyd, the most recent inmate to be recaptured, was in jail on charges of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery and threatening a public official. The following inmates are still at large: Lenton J. Vanburen Jr., 26, faces charges of illegal carrying of weapons, possession of a firearm or weapon by a felon, obstruction of justice and introducing contraband in prison. Jermaine Donald, 42, faces charges of second-degree murder, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm or weapon by a felon and obstruction of justice. Antoine Massey, 32, faces charges of domestic abuse involving strangulation, theft of a motor vehicle and a parole violation. Derrick Groves, 27, faces three counts of attempted second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and battery of a correctional facility employee. Leo O. Tate Sr., 31, faces charges of simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling, possession of a firearm or weapon by a felon, illegal carrying of a weapon, motor vehicle theft and multiple drug counts. Fox News Digital reached out to Hutson for article source: Orleans Parish sheriff boasted about jail security days before 10 inmates escaped
