Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Quinn Hutson returned from his latest stint in the National Hockey League earlier this week, and he keeps making it harder for the Oilers to keep him out of Edmonton.
The 24-year-old rookie put on his latest show in Abbotsford. He had a pair of goals and an assist to send the Bakersfield Condors past the Canucks, 5-3, on Tuesday night – his sixth three-point game this season. Then he added a power-play goal Wednesday in a 4-1 victory to complete the Condors’ sweep of their Pacific Division rival.
Hutson leads the entire American Hockey League with 22 goals. His 36 points are two off the league lead. In his last six games for Bakersfield, he has totaled nine goals and 12 points.
Hutson possesses an excellent shot that he has been more than willing to use with 82 shots on goal so far this season. He is 5-foot-11, 176 pounds, but he can play a sturdy game, take contact and manage his defensive responsibilities.
The older brother of Lane Hutson – who won the Calder Trophy as the outstanding rookie in the National Hockey League last season – Quinn landed with the Oilers as an undrafted free agent from Boston University last April. He skated in two games with Edmonton at the end of last season and has gotten into four NHL games so far in 2025-26, scoring his first big-league goal on Dec. 18 back in Boston against the Bruins. During his latest stint, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch deployed Hutson on a line with fellow call-up Isaac Howard and Bakersfield graduate Matt Savoie.
Both first-year pros, Hutson and Howard have given the Condors a dominant scoring presence when they have been together in Bakersfield. Howard, who has 23 points in 16 AHL games, was the Fortune Tires “Expect More” AHL Player of the Month for December, while Hutson earned Upper Deck AHL Rookie of the Month honors. Put them on the ice together, as Condors head coach Colin Chaulk has been able to do at different points this season, and watch them work. Bakersfield’s 3.64 goals per game rank second in the AHL. So does the power play, which is clicking at 26.1 percent. For his part, Hutson has feasted on opposing penalty-killing units with the team lead in both power-play goals (10) and power-play points (18).
The Pacific Division is a jam-up with the AHL schedule soon to hit its midpoint; Bakersfield is in the middle of a pack that sees the top eight teams separated by eight points. A quick run can send a team surging past several competitors, but even a brief stumble can mean tumbling down the standings. In the Pacific, the division champion gets a first-round bye but second- through seventh-place teams must play a best-of-3 first-round series. So every point the Condors can earn while Hutson is still in their lineup is crucial.
Coming off a 50-point season at BU, Hutson had no shortage of suitors last spring. Edmonton felt like a fit. And if he has to spend some more time developing in Bakersfield, that’s OK. The Condors will enjoy him as long as he remains on their roster.
“I think there’s a path for me here,” Hutson told reporters during his recent time in Edmonton, “and maybe the path is moving faster than I thought.”
So what does he need to do while in Bakersfield?
“Keep going down there, working hard, not getting down on myself and just stay confident.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.