For better or worse, Ken Holland has addressed one hole on the Edmonton Oilers roster, acquiring a second pairing left shot defenseman to replace Oscar Klefbom. Recent rumours also suggest that the Oilers are very close to signing Adam Larsson, likely right after the Expansion Draft. With those two spots filled, Holland will now need to turn his attention to the forward core, specifically a top six winger. Free agency has a number of enticing options available for this position. Today we are going to discuss Zack Hyman.
Hyman is one of those unique top six forwards that brings a combination of scoring ability along with a heavy physical game, a style which quickly endeared him to Leafs fans. Over the past three seasons, Hyman has been a 20+ goal scorer and 40 point player. This past season was a huge breakout for the player with 15 goals and 33 points in only 43 games. If he kept that pace up over a full season we are looking at a 30 goal, 60 point player.
While many would not necessarily think of Hyman as a natural sniper, he has shown to be a volume shooter, something Edmonton needs in it's top six. Last season Hyman had 115 shots on net, a number that would have placed him 4th on the Oilers among forwards, tied with Jesse Puljujarvi. More impressively is looking at his individual ability to produce scoring chances. Last season, Hyman ranked 5th in the NHL with an iSCF/60 of 10.72. That means that for every 60 minutes of play, Hyman created over 10 scoring chances. Now, the highest player on that list was Auston Matthews, who Hyman played regularly with but it isn't like Hyman would be playing with a slouch in Edmonton.
McDavid flanked by Puljujarvi on one side and Hyman on the other could create one of the most dominant forechecking lines in the NHL. Hyman is an incredibly aggressive forechecking as is Jesse Puljujarvi. Having those two players with McDavid should ensure that the Oilers dominate in terms of possession and then have two guys who can shoot the puck. There is plenty to like about that potential combination.
While Leafs fans had plenty of ire for the likes of Matthews and Marner during the playoffs, Hyman was almost universally praised for his play. Holland clearly is putting stock into playoff performance when making additions to this roster and Hyman's play in the first round will make him an enticing option, not just for the Oilers but a number of other teams looking for solutions in free agency.
The issue with Hyman will be like many free agents; term. Hyman has reportedly shot down a number of offers from the Leafs and phrases like "7 year term" have been thrown around by insiders. Zack Hyman's camp may be looking for a max length deal in the realm of 5.5 to 6 million dollars and if that is the case than the Oilers should run as fast as they can in the opposite direction.
The memory of Milan Lucic should still be fresh in the minds of Oilers fans. Lucic plays an overall different style of game but was always a physically involved player like Hyman. Those types of players typically have a much shorter shelf life. For Lucic, his drop in production occured almost immediately. He scored 50 points in his first year but 25 of those were on the powerplay. The following year his PP production dropped as his 5 on 5 play continued to plummet. Edmonton is still dealing with that fallout with the James Neal contract, which was acquired in order to simply not have Lucic on the team. Neal remains a buyout candidate for Edmonton.
Hyman could be an excellent option for the Edmonton Oilers for the next five years, or he could drop off fast and be a highly expensive third line winger. These types of risks are made exponentially worse by the flat cap. Holland has already taken a big gamble with the Keith acquisition which has eaten up 5.5 million in cap space. If Hyman becomes a 6 million dollar anchor that will effectively cripple the Oilers ability to compete.
There are a number of options in free agency that Holland can pursue and Hyman certainly should be one of those players but Holland and his team need to weigh the pros and cons of many of these players instead of tunnel visioning on just one. A top six winger is a huge need for this team but so is depth scoring as well. Backing up the money van on just a couple players will mean the same problems that existed this past season will remain.
Thanks for reading.