2025-26 NHL Power Rankings: 40-game mark
January 7, 2026
What Tuesday’s Oilers moves mean going forward
January 13, 2026January 12, 2026 by Ryan Lotsberg
Quinn Hutson has been absolutely tearing up the AHL in his rookie season. He’s got 38 points in just 30 games for the Bakersfield Condors this season, which is good enough for third in the entire league. He ranks third in the AHL in points per game among players with twenty or more games played. Hutson is currently second in the AHL with 23 goals, only one behind the pace of Arthur Kaliyev. The difference is that Kaliyev has played in six more games than Hutson has.
Related: Oilers’ pursuit of “outside the box” prospects continues with Hutson and Leppanen signings
Some people want to knock Hutson’s overall game because he has ten powerplay goals, but he’s still tied for third in the AHL in even strength goals so far this season with thirteen. He’s proving that he’s a fantastic scorer at even strength as well.
The 24-year old scored his first NHL goal against the Boston Bruins on December 18, 2025, which is his only point in his four NHL games this season.
All of that has earned Hutson a new two-year contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers that has an average annual value of $875,000.
There are three important things to point out about this contract. The first is that he didn’t get a raise over his current AAV and there are no potential performance bonuses. That tells me that the Oilers are obviously happy with what they’ve seen from him this season, but not happy enough to pay him like a player they expect to make room for on the big club. Judging by the fact that he hasn’t played more than 9:17 in any of his NHL games this season, that seems like an accurate assessment.
The second is that it’s a two-way contract next season (as it is this season), and a one-way contract in 2027-28. All a two-way contract means is that the player receives a different salary when he’s in the AHL than when he’s in the NHL. They wouldn’t give a player a two-way contract if they felt it was likely that he was going to be on the big club. Why would they voluntarily pay him more than they need to, right?
According to PuckPedia, Hutson’s minor league salary for next season is $400k, but he’s guaranteed $500k. That extra $100k over his minor league salary seems like something to compensate for potentially being stuck in the AHL for most of next season. They got ahead of it by negotiating some extra guaranteed money into the contract.
Having a one-way contract in 2027-28 doesn’t mean that Hutson is a lock to be on the Oilers that season. It just means that he will earn the full $875k regardless of whether he plays in the AHL or the NHL.
The third important note is that he will be exempt from waivers next season, but not in 2027-28. PuckPedia’s waivers tracker page says that Hutson has used one of his three seasons of being waivers exempt. That was last season because he played two games down the stretch. The only way that his waivers eligibility would expire prior to 2027-28 would be if he was to play in 64 NHL games this season and next season as he has played in six of the 70 NHL games needed for him to become eligible for waivers.
All of that tells me that Hutson is far from a lock to make the Oilers next season let alone right now.
That statement is going rile many Oilers fans up because Hutson is doing so well in the AHL right now and the Oilers need cheap bottom six talent that can score. The Oilers have a kid that’s fighting for the AHL goal scoring lead as a rookie, and they aren’t giving him a shot with the big club even though the bottom six isn’t producing. When he has gotten into the Oilers lineup this season, he hasn’t played much at all; and now I’m saying that he isn’t even a lock for next season. I get it, it’s frustrating because it seems like a simple solution to just plug the kid in and let him play.
For now, I say let the kid do his thing in the AHL. Let it continue being a success story for a while longer. The Oilers forward group is as close to full health as it has been all season long. The only injury is Adam Henrique, who mostly plays centre but can play left wing as well. Hutson is a right winger. The Oilers have Zach Hyman, Jack Roslovic, Kasperi Kapanen, Matt Savoie, Trent Frederic, and Curtis Lazar that can all play the right side right now. The starboard side is pretty full right now, so there’s no need to rush Hutson here.
The right wing depth chart for next season isn’t set in stone yet. Roslovic, Kapanen, and Lazar are all unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. While all three are having great seasons and could easily all end up back with the Oilers next season, nothing is certain at this point.
Hutson has the intelligence and the offensive ability to be an NHLer, but he still needs some time. I think his skating stride is a bit short and I feel that his legs are fairly straight because his upper body leans a bit too far forward which affects the efficiency of his stride. At 5’11” and 175 lbs, he also needs a bit more time to fill out. Those aren’t major obstacles to overcome.
The kid has to earn his spot, but I also believe that if the organization wants him to be a part of the solution, then they have to find a spot for him in their top nine at some point. The structure of Hutson’s new contract suggests that he will have a hard time getting a spot next season, but he will face the same situation that Raphael Lavoie had prior to last season in 2027-28.
Lavoie was no longer exempt from waivers for the 2024-25 season. The Oilers chose to waive him, and he got claimed by the Vegas Golden Knights. Lavoie played seven games for the Oilers in 2023-24 and didn’t register a point. Hutson has already proven to be more prolific an AHL scorer that Lavoie has ever been, and Lavoie’s first NHL goal still eludes him; but Hutson could find himself in a similar situation in 2027-28 if he’s not able to maintain or elevate his play next season.
My hope is that Hutson continues ripping it up in the AHL and that he forces his way onto the roster next season. My secondary hope is that he’s ready for a full-time role as late as the 2027-28 season. The thing I would hate to see is the Oilers going out of their way to block him by signing replacement level veterans at his position for the 2027-28 season and having the coaching staff decide to play those replacement level veterans over Hutson at that time.
It’s still too early to decide Hutson’s NHL future. If the three Hutson brothers end up having anything close to the NHL success the three Hughes or Staal brothers have had and the Oilers end up with the worst one of those brothers, then the Hutson signing will be a massive success for the Oilers. There’s no guarantee that Hutson carves out an NHL career at this point though. All we know right now is that Hutson is having an incredible rookie season and this new two-year contract seems like a smart bet.
