Ahead of the 2023-24 season, EdmontonOilers.com is taking a look back at the ’22-23 individual performances of the Oilers in our series ‘Roster Redux’
EDMONTON, AB – Zach Hyman has been the perfect fit at the perfect time for the Edmonton Oilers.
A throwback player who is just as comfortable crashing the front of the net as he is being penning a children’s book, Hyman has been a pivotal player for Head Coach Jay Woodcroft and the Oilers as they continue to strive for playoff perfection.
“It’s probably one of the best compliments I could give any type of player, but I would describe Zach Hyman as being easy to play with, but hard to play against,” Woodcroft said about the forward’s style. “His effect on whatever line he plays on, I think you can see tangible results immediately. He does a lot of things that don’t show up on the scoresheet but are valued by his teammates and coaches as well.”
The recently turned 31-year-old entered the second year of his seven-year pact with the Oilers with high expectations after setting career highs in goals (27), assists (27), and points (54) in 2021-22. In 2022-23, Hyman would go on to blow those expectations completely out of the water.
The Toronto native had an offensive explosion, shattering all of his previous career bests. Hyman scored 36 goals and tacked on 47 assists (83 points) in just 78 games to notch his first point-per game season and finish fourth on the team in scoring. The summit season from the hard-working winger was a long time coming, from his humble beginnings as a late round pick by the Florida Panthers in 2010, to becoming a sterling offensive weapon for the Blue & Orange.
“When I came to the league, it was ‘how am I going to stick in the league, how am I going to be an everyday player?’ and then every year you try to kind of add elements and change,” Hyman said earlier in the season about his offensive development. “You don’t go from 28 points or whatever my first year to now overnight, you’ve got to work at it.
“For me, every level I’ve been at, I’ve tried to work at my game and try to learn the game as it changes.”
Video: VGK@EDM: Hyman ties the game 1-1 in the 1st
On Dec. 13, in a 6-3 Edmonton victory over the Nashville Predators, Hyman notched his first career NHL hat trick in a three goal, four-point performance. The frenetic forward was buzzing all night, firing six shots on goal in his 18:31 of ice time to extend what would become an eight-game point streak to seven contests.
“It’s always great to see. Those milestones are amazing, always fun to be a part of,” Leon Draisaitl, who had five points of his own that night, said after the game. “He was great tonight, hounding [the puck] and obviously being strong as a bull on it, as always. So great game from him.”
Hyman’s torrid pace continued post-Christmas and into the latter half of the season. The winger racked up another four-point effort (1G, 3A) on Jan. 21 in Vancouver to set a new career high of 56 with 34 games left in the season. The new high coincided with a sensational stretch where Hyman scored 14 points (6G, 8A) during a seven-game point streak and was named the NHL’s First Star of the week on Jan. 23.
“I think just how many battles he wins and how many pucks he keeps alive. You obviously notice how hard he works and when you’re playing against him, it’s a tiring night for sure,” Connor McDavid said about his frequent linemate. “He’s like a dog on a bone on the puck, so I think that’s the biggest thing that jumps out when you’re playing with him.”
Video: EDM@VAN: Hyman directs McDavid’s pass in for PPG
That dog on a bone mentality is both a gift and a curse at times for Hyman. The 6-foot-1 power forward’s penchant for crashing the net is how he scored many of his 36 goals last season, but it’s also the reason that total wasn’t even higher. Over the course of his 78 games, a total of six different Hyman tallies were overturned on coaches’ challenges or video review. Had the borderline calls gone the other way, the Edmonton forward could have found himself tied for ninth in the league in goals with the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Alexander Ovechkin.
“Yeah, he’s doing a lot of really good things and he’s obviously feeling it offensively as well, which is a great thing. [The puck is] going in for him right now and he’s still getting some called back, which is pretty wild,” McDavid said. “I’ve never seen a guy get more called back, but you know what? It shows he’s going to the net hard and doing a lot of good things around the net.”
Goals weren’t the only milestones checked off by the well-liked Oilers player. In the last game of the regular season, Hyman got to share a special moment with a fellow teammate who also had a less than traditional path to the NHL in Derek Ryan. The veteran duo both suited up for their 500th NHL game in a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Hyman made his debut well in advance of Ryan, who didn’t appear in an NHL game until he was 29-years-old, but both took a collegiate path after not being highly regarded prospects and carved out a solid niche in the best league in the world to hit 500 games played.
“I got to speak to both those guys this morning and congratulate them on this. Two heart and soul, two foxhole type players, two men that get everything out of what God gave them,” Woodcroft said after the game. “They’re just phenomenal teammates, and it seems to me, despite their advanced ages, they keep getting better.”
Video: EDM@OTT: Hyman nets 300th NHL point on penalty shot
As incredible as it was for Hyman to hit a milestone in game 82 of the season, it was game 83 that was all the Oilers players truly cared about. The trip to the Western Conference finals the year prior had whetted their appetite for more playoff success, which the Oilers were able to experience a small taste of in 2023 having dispatched the Los Angeles Kings in six games in Round 1.
The second round for Hyman wasn’t so sweet. After a big three assist performance in Game 2 of the series against the Golden Knights, the Oilers forward caught a stray knee from Vegas’s Nic Hague near the end of the contest which hampered Hyman for the remainder of the series. In the games three to six against the Golden Knights, he would not reach his season average of 20:09 in any of the four contests playing as little as 14:06 in the game after the hit.
Hyman showed his typical high character attitude in the year-end press conferences and would not use the knock as an excuse for the Oilers shortened postseason.
“Yeah, I don’t want to get into it too much,” he said. “It’s the playoffs, you get banged up. It was getting better as the series went on, I would say, and it felt good in game six. It’s just part of the playoffs.”
Video: RAW | Zach Hyman, Mattias Ekholm 05.16.23
“He’s out there battling and I think that, as a group, you take that into account,” Nurse said after Game 3. “This time of the year, people are playing through a lot of things and he was out there battling and trying to work his hardest for the group. I think we need to pick up that same effort all around him.”
Hyman finished the postseason with a solid 11 points (3G, 8A) in 12 games, but was well below the pace of the 11 goals he scored during the previous year’s West Final run. The result has only motivated the Oilers veteran heading into a key offseason for himself and the clung.
“Going into next year, I think everybody’s mindset should be winning the Stanley Cup or it’s a failure of a season. That’s the reality of the window that we’re talking about. There’s no consolation prize,” Hyman said. “We’re not going to feel any better. It’s the worst I felt after a loss in my career, and it’s not going to get better until you win.
“There are no excuses. We’re returning the majority of our team. Management is going to do what management thinks they need to do to make our team better, and that’s the mindset we have going into next year.”