Edmonton Oilers: Recapping free agency day one trades and signings

3. Oilers sign dual winger Zach Hyman to a seven year, $38.5 million deal ($5.5 million per)

If only Kyle Dubas hadn’t shot himself in the foot by not dealing the neg rights to Holland, we’d have an eight year contract at a lower cap hit on our hands. Alas, this is the maximum term we could do. Hyman is now what Kassian was expected to be for a longer period of time. Hyman is going to be the power forward that will secure the port side of Mcdavid, although he can move to the right side in a pinch. In his media availability he said he and his wife came here on their own, toured some residential areas, saw the city, toured the rink. I’d heard about that visit, but heard it was more of an official visit. The fact that he came to Edmonton on his own dime speaks volumes about how serious he was in coming here.

Pros – Hyman was third on the Leafs in hits last season with 69, and expect him to bring that here to open up space for Mcdavid just like he did previously for Auston Matthews. He did get some PP time in TO last season, but one key for him is only three of his 15 goals and two of his 18 assists last season were on the PP. I see that as a good thing as it means that most of Hyman’s offence is produced at even strength. Whether Hyman will play more, less, or the same on the PP here is hard to say, as the Oilers already have the #1 PP in the league the last two seasons so they may not want to mess with it too much. He also finished third on the Leafs last season in PK TOI with 1:58 per game, and the Oilers could certainly use another ringer on their PK, which wasn’t as strong as their PP last season. Hyman will solidify the top 6, as Mcdavid has been forced to play with lesser players for far too long now. For the first time in decades, the Oilers have six legitimate top six forwards in the top six. For the record, Hyman’s 33 points in 43 games this season work out to 63 points in a full 82 game season. He’s cracked the 20 goal mark twice in his career already, and if he spends most of his season next to Mcdavid I’d say there’s a good chance he’ll do it again.

Cons – Ultimately the length of the contract is a bit of a double-edged sword. It was necessary to get him to sign here, but Hyman just turned 29 at the beginning of June, so this contract will take him until the age of 36. Power forwards tend to have more punishment on their body than bottom six guys or finesse players, so their careers tend to be shorter.

Only time will tell whether Hyman’s case will be typical or atypical of a power forward. If the extreme happens, at least Hyman’s contract can be salvaged as LTIR cap space. Holland is betting this signing will help push the Oilers over the top in the playoffs, and while that’s entirely possible, Hyman only has five goals and 13 points in 32 playoff games over his career. On the plus side, that’s five out of six seasons of his career. Holland is betting the Oilers will win at least one Stanley Cup during Hyman’s contract here to justify it, that way even if it doesn’t age well at least something good will have come from it.