Oilers’ Hyman Deserves More Praise For Incredible Start to Season

Leon Draisaitl has the second most goals in the NHL since the start of the 2018-19 season. He’s also a four-time 40-goal scorer and last season scored 52 times to become the only Edmonton Oilers player since the 1980s with back-to-back 50-goal campaigns.

Connor McDavid has the second most goals in the NHL since the start of the 2020-21 season. He’s a four-time 40-goal scorer and last season scored 64 times to win the Maurice Rocket Ruchard Trophy as the league’s leader in goals.

And neither one of them leads the Oilers in goals this season. They’re actually not even that close. Nor is Evander Kane, an eight-time 20 goal-scorer, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who potted 37 goals in 2022-23.

Through Edmonton’s first 31 games this season, Nugent-Hopkins has eight goals, McDavid has 12, Kane has 13, and Draisaitl has 14. They, along with everyone else in the Oilers lineup, are looking up – way up – at Zach Hyman, who has already lit the lamp 19 times.

Hyman Leads Oilers in Goals

It’s been an incredible season thus far for Hyman, who also has assisted on 12 goals for a total of 31 points in the 30 games he’s played. The veteran left wing headed into the Christmas break tied with Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Florida Panthers forward Sam Reinhart for the fifth most goals in the NHL.

Related: Zach Hyman Establishing Stardom Among Oilers’ Superstars

Hyman is on pace for more than 50 goals, which would make him just the third Oilers player, alongside Draisaitl and McDavid, to reach that milestone in the last 37 years. He’s poised to become one of the 10 quickest players in Edmonton’s NHL history to score 20 goals from the start of a season, joining an exclusive club that includes Hall-of-Famers Glenn Anderson, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and Mark Messier.

In short, Hyman just had one of the all-time great pre-Christmas performances on a franchise that’s seen a lot of greatness.

Hyman Overshadowed on Oilers

Despite his offensive exploits, however, Hyman seems to be flying well below the radar. Part of it could be because of all the drama that surrounded the Oilers early this season — their disastrous 2-9-1 start, followed by general manager Ken Holland’s controversial decision to relieve head coach Jay Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson of their duties, replacing them with Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey, respectively.

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But even as the team has turned things around, going 12-6-0 since the coaching change and winning eight games in a row from Nov. 24 to Dec. 12, more attention has been paid to McDavid’s stretch of a dozen straight games with a point, or Evan Bouchard’s 13-game point streak, longest ever by an Oilers defenceman not named Coffey.

Hyman’s longest point streak of the season lasted six games and his longest streak of scoring goals is three games. He also hasn’t gone more than two games without a point and his longest stretch without tallying a goal is three games. Hyman has been consistent, something pretty much no one else on this team can say.

Hyman Shows No Sign of Slowing Down

That consistency is why there’s every reason to believe Hyman can maintain this level of play. He’s made incremental improvements year after year after year and continues to keep getting better.

In his first full NHL season, 2016-17 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hyman scored 10 times in 82 games, for an average of 0.12 goals per game. He then averaged 0.18 goals (15 in 82 games) in 2017-18, 0.30 goals (21 in 71 games) in 2018-19 and 0.41 goals (21 in 51 games) in 2019-20. His average dipped slightly to 0.35 goals (15 in 43 games) in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season before he became a free agent and signed a seven-year contract with the Oilers in the proceeding offseason.

Since coming to Edmonton, Hyman has resumed his upward trajectory, averaging 0.36 goals (27 in 76 games) in 2021-22, 0.46 goals (36 in 79 games) in 2022-23, and is now averaging 0.63 goals through the first 11 weeks of this season. He needs 18 goals in Edmonton’s final 51 games to set a new career high.

Even as Hyman elevates his offensive play, the 6-foot-1 winger continues to be one of the best two-way players in an Oilers jersey, leading the team with a plus/minus rating of plus-7. His forechecking ability and work in the corners make him a key part of the Oilers’ success even when he’s not putting the puck in the net.

Hyman Worthy of All-Star Selection

The 2024 NHL All-Star Game will take place on Feb. 3 in Toronto, the city where Hyman grew up and spent the first six seasons of his NHL career. It would be an incredible story if the 31-year-old made his first-ever All-Star appearance at Scotiabank Arena.

This year, 44 players will compete in the All-Star Game. The NHL will select one representative from each of its 32 teams, after which the final 12 All-Star roster spots will be decided by fan vote.

McDavid is almost certain to be the NHL’s selection, meaning Hyman’s path to Toronto depends on fan balloting. It’s unlikely that someone so under the radar will receive enough votes to make it to the All-Star Game, but if Hyman keeps producing at this rate, no one can say he doesn’t deserve to be at the midseason classic.