Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Quinn Hutson he returned from his latest stint in the National Hockey League earlier this week, and continues to make it difficult for the Oilers to keep him in Edmonton.
The 24-year-old made his latest appearance at Abbotsford. He had two goals and an assist to send the Bakersfield Condors past the Canucks, 5-3, on Tuesday night – his sixth three-point game of the season. He then added a power-play goal on 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 tied for the league lead. In his last six games for Bakersfield, he has tallied nine goals and 12 points.
Hutson has a very good shot which he is very willing to use having scored 82 goals so far this season. He is 5-foot-11, 176 pounds, but he can play the tight end game, communicate and control his defensive responsibilities.
The older brother of Lane Hutson – who won the Calder Trophy as the National Hockey League’s top player last season – Quinn came to 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 appeared in four NHL games so far in 2025-26, scoring his first major league goal on Dec. 18 back in Boston against the Bruins. In his latest stint, coach of the Oilers Chris Knoblauch Hutson was planted on the line with his colleagues who were called Isaac Howard and a graduate of Bakersfield Matt Savoie.
Both first-year professionals, Hutson and Howard provided the Condors with multiple goals during their time 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 the Upper Deck AHL Rookie of the Month award. Put yourself on the ice together, as the head coach of the Condors Colin Chaulk has been able to make different points this season, and watch them work. Bakersfield’s 3.64 goals per game ranks second in the AHL. So is the power play, which clicks at 26.1 percent. Hutson, on the other hand, feasted on opposing penalty-killing units and led the team in both power-play goals (10) and power-play points (18).
The Pacific Division fills the AHL schedule in the near future; Bakersfield is in the middle of a group that sees the top eight teams separated by eight points. A quick run can send a team past several opponents, but even a slight stumble can mean relegation. In the Pacific, the division champion gets to advance through the first round but the second through seventh place teams must play a best-of-3 first round series. So every point the Condors can score while Hutson is on their roster is important.
Coming off a 50-point season at BU, Hutson had no shortage of suitors last spring. Edmonton felt pressured. And if he has to spend more time developing in Bakersfield, that’s fine. The Condors will be happy for him as long as he stays 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, work hard, don’t get down and stay confident.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
