PROJECTED LINEUP: Hutson to make NHL debut Monday vs. the Kings

EDMONTON, AB – The Quinn-tessential arrival.

Fresh off signing his entry-level deal in Oil Country, right winger Quinn Hutson will make his NHL debut on Monday night when the Edmonton Oilers host the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Place tonight in their final home game of the regular season.

“I think it's just a great spot and a great opportunity here,” Hutson said. “I think there's a lot of opportunities to develop here. Obviously, it's an unbelievable set-up and I'm just excited to get started.”

The 23-year-old is two days removed from losing 6-2 to Western Michigan in the final of the NCAA’s Frozen Four with the Boston University Terriers on Saturday, closing out his NCAA career that saw him record 114 points (56 goals) in 117 games over three seasons.

The older brother of Montreal Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson and Washington Capitals blueline prospect Cole Hutson, Quinn posted 50 points (23 goals) in 38 games this season with Boston University and will get the chance to make an impression at the NHL level in Edmonton’s final two regular-season games. Hutson is ineligible to play for the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“Obviously I’m still thinking about it. It sucks to lose making it that far in the season and coming up short, so I guess this is just a good way to forget about it," he said of the Frozen Four final. "But it's definitely still there in the back of my head.”

Hutson's arrival couldn't come at a better time for the Oilers, who'll have more than a handful of key players out of the lineup tonight either for maintenance reasons or injuries as the team tries to get healthy before the start of their fourth consecutive meeting with the Kings in the first round of the playoffs.

The winger was on the ice for this morning's heavily optional pre-game skate that came after Edmonton's 4-1 victory over the Presidents' Trophy-winning Jets the previous night in Winnipeg, where he had the chance to skate with names like Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evander Kane.

"A lot of nerves even going out for that skate right there," Hutson said. "Pretty nervous, but that's just part of the game."

"I want to go out there, play a safe game and just stick to what I usually do."

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch wishes the circumstances of Hutson's arrival in Edmonton were better, but he's no doubt excited about having the dynamic prospect available to make his NHL debut and help the Oilers deal with their long list of injury absences late in the regular season.

"It's great having him here. Unfortunately, the situation of all the injuries and not having our team and we're going to be playing a forward short. But it's an excellent opportunity for him to play. We'll. We'll need him," Knoblauch said.

"I think he's a very smart hockey player, and smart hockey players can fit in and play with whoever. I'm not familiar with this game. I've got some scouting reports on him and Stan [Bowman] has told me a little bit about him, but I think he'll be playing off a lot of emotion and he'll give us a little boost."

Knoblauch mentioned that the Oilers will play with 11 forwards and six defencemen tonight with Josh Brown set to be recalled from Bakersfield on an emergency basis after saying that Troy Stecher will be out tonight with an injury that led to him missing the third period of Sunday's win over Winnipeg.

The bench boss added that Mattias Ekholm will be "out for a while" through to the end of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, along with Jake Walman being day-to-day and potentially an option for the Oilers in their final regular-season game on Wednesday against his former team the San Jose Sharks.

Zach Hyman will remain out tonight along with Leon Draisaitl and Trent Frederic, with the latter hoping to be available for Game 1 of their first-round series with the Kings. Hyman and Draisaitl are both question marks for Wednesday's regular-season finale in San Jose but are expected to be ready for the playoffs.

Captain Connor McDavid will also be held out for precautionary reasons with the Oilers finishing the regular season with three games in four nights. But the team will get a boost from the return of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who missed the last two games because of illness.

"Definitely a lot of injuries," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Sometimes, you've got to fight through these things and have different guys step up and I think we've been seeing that."

Evander Kane provided an update on his status this morning as he nears a potential return in the playoffs after he's spent the last 10 months recovering from off-season surgery and another operation on his knee in early January.

"I'm feeling good," he said. "I've put in a lot of hard work ever since I had the surgery, and the knee surgery kind of right when I was about to start to come back and start skating. I've been putting in a lot of work to feel really good up until this point, and I'm really excited to get going here as soon as we get to 100 percent, which should be pretty soon."

With this morning's pre-game skate being optional, tonight's confirmed forward lines and defence pairings will be confirmed during warm-ups.