The Edmonton Oilers’ decision to give Zach Hyman a massive seven-year contract was something that has been talked about a lot in recent weeks.
I have not been the biggest fan of this move by the Oilers, and I have talked about that a lot. Today though I want to talk about some benefits to the decision to sign Hyman long-term with Edmonton.
Going into this offseason, everyone expected some changes from the Oilers. While no one really knew what changes were going to happen for sure, a few things were certain. Larsson was going to get a contract extension, Nugent-Hopkins was probably gone, and Edmonton was going to do everything they can to improve their forward depth before the new season.
Well, one of those things came true. Edmonton did in fact do their best to bring in some talent to boost the bottom six, whether or not they did enough is still up in the air. The team watched Larsson take a contract in Seattle, they gave Nugent-Hopkins a long-term extension keeping him in Edmonton for many years, and they signed another big-name forward, Zach Hyman from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Hyman was due for a contract at the end of the season, and there were some talks of a sign and trade deal between Edmonton and Toronto, but at the end of the day, they decided to wait until free agency began and gave him a nice seven-year deal.
Here are Hyman’s stats throughout his career thus far:
33 points in 43 games, that would be 63 points during a regular season. While Hyman probably won’t be putting that up next season we will have to wait and see. Let’s dive in with the first reason signing Hyman was the right call for the team.