On Monday, the Edmonton Oilers announced they had made a roster move, recalling rookie forward Quinn Hutson. Initially signed to a two-year entry level contract by the Oilers from the NCAA at the end of last season, he played two regular season games before the end of the year.
He has spent this season with the Oilers American Hockey League affiliate, Bakersfield Condors. Through 24 games he has recorded 28 points (16 goals, 12 assists) and is currently the AHL rookie goals and points scoring leader.
He joins an Oilers team that has been showing big signs of improvement but have also had troubles executing at 5-on-5 and especially further down their roster. The move also comes after the club recalled forward Connor Clattenburg who injected energy into the lineup, leaving Hutson as the next obvious choice to recall.
Who is Oilers rookie Quinn Hutson?
Hutson has been a standout hockey player for years, going back to his junior hockey days with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL. Although he went undrafted, the 23 year old winger amassed 115 points (49 goals, 66 assists) in 104 games over two seasons with the Lumberjacks before attending Boston University of the NCAA.
There he really made a name for himself, spending three seasons in total at the collegiate level, scoring 23 goals and 27 assists (50 points) in 38 games in his final season before signing his ELC with the Oilers.
Since signing, he has found himself climbing the prospect pipeline within the organization being listed No. 10 on our 2025-26 top prospects list and being named as the Oilers representative for the NHLPA Rookie Showcase in September.
Hutson could add depth scoring
The Oilers' lack of depth scoring has been a problem that has plagued them for many years but has been a bigger problem this year. Out of their 110 goals -- which places them fourth in the entire league -- Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl account for 35 alone, or roughly 32 percent of all goals.
Similarly, of their 110 goals, only 69 have been scored at 5-on-5, or roughly 63 percent.
This has caused a lot of lineup juggling as head coach Kris Knoblauch and his staff attempt to find the right combination of players to generate offence and win the Oilers games. There have been multiple players that have underperformed expectations like; David Tomasek, Trent Frederic, Andrew Mangiapane, amongst others.
Now, the Oilers seem keen to give the rookie Hutson a chance to boost offence in their lineup and provide secondary scoring.
Historically, Hutson has done well at every level and now will be given a chance to prove he can hang at the NHL level. There are likely a few reasons for the Oilers to do this now, the team has three games remaining on their road trip and would like to carry an extra forward as they are banged up.
As well, doing it now with the craziness that will be the next few months with the New Year, Olympic break, NHL trade deadline, playoff race, and more all coming up right around the corner makes sense. Giving him a chance now while he is on a hot streak both should help to boost morale and offers a nice reward for performance while also giving the Oilers brass a good viewing on what they have in this player and lets them know if they need to make external adds to improve their depth.