What\u2019s not to like about Hutson?\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was third in the AHL in goals and points after receiving the nod to join the big club in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, thanks in part to a seven-game heater.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Hutson\u2019s last seven AHL games dating back to Nov. 29, Hutson accumulated eight goals, 4 assists, and 12 points. He\u2019s done his most damage this season on the power play, with eight goals this year on the man advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, some in Oilers social media were annoyed with Hutson\u2019s placement<\/a> on the depth chart, and subsequent usage in the game, as head coach Kris Knoblauch put him on the 4th line with Curtis Lazar and Trent Frederic.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of excitement about Hutson considering his strong NCAA career, his AHL tear, and because he\u2019s an older prospect who turns 24-years-old in a couple weeks. That\u2019s prime age for an NHLer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In this week\u2019s What Would You Do Wednesday, would you keep Hutson on the 4th line, or elevate him in the top-6?\u00a0<\/p>\n The Penguins game<\/p>\n Hutson played 6:59 of TOI over the course of 12 shifts against the Penguins, finishing with one shot on goal and -1.\u00a0<\/p>\n That was the second fewest minutes amongst Oilers skaters, as Curtis Lazar\u2019s suspected 2nd period injury forced him out for a stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n At 5-on-5, Hutson primarily lined up with Lazar and Frederic, according to Natural Stat Trick,<\/a> but there was 1:04 of time with Andrew Mangiapane and Frederic, which resulted in a goal against with 14 seconds left in regulation. Frederic\u2019s lackadaisical effort<\/a> seems to be a primary culprit on the goal against.\u00a0<\/p>\n The game was plagued with specialty teams, as the Oilers had four powerplays and the Pens had six, disrupting minutes for Hutson.\u00a0There were a couple occasions when McDavid was out with Hutson and Frederic, as Lazar only played one shift in the 3rd period.\u00a0<\/p>\n Knoblauch receives flak at times for his patience, or depending on your view, in giving inexperienced NHL players ice time.\u00a0<\/p>\n We saw it take Matt Savoie over a month to crack into the top-6, but now seems stapled to Draisaitl\u2019s wing. Knoblauch also was criticized with Noah Philp being scratched after scoring a goal against Vancouver on Oct. 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n My take<\/p>\n I don\u2019t mind Hutson starting on the fourth line in this callup to begin games. The top-6 is cooking right now and I don\u2019t think he wants to break that up.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bottom-6 overall is a black hole of offence, with wingers Frederic, Mangiapane, and Janmark unable to produce, and Adam Henrique tied to at least two of them to make things happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n It ain\u2019t pretty.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, I could see Hutson being better playing beside Adam Henrique, or if the lines remain the same, the minutes being similar between each line.\u00a0<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think starting Hutson in the top-6 in a guy is a great move, because if it isn\u2019t going well, there\u2019s nowhere for him to go than down in the lineup. That could be more of a confidence killer than starting on the 4th line.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, Hutson could work his way up in-game, getting a shift or two with either McDavid or Draisaitl.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m guessing Knoblauch doesn\u2019t want to put any expectations on Hutson yet, which is not a bad strategy, and this is a dip-the-toes-in-the-water type of callup with the Oilers injuries.\u00a0If Hutson played beside McDavid, I\u2019d suspect the sacrificial lamb to be Nugent-Hopkins to drop and play 3rd line center.\u00a0<\/p>\n My call would be to give Hutson a shot with Henrique and Mangiapane, and let Frederic-Lazar-Janmark figure it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what would you do?\u00a0<\/p>\n ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s not to like about Hutson?\u00a0 He was third in the AHL in goals and points after receiving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-99227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}