Zach Hyman is almost five years into his Unrestricted Free Agent contract signing with the Edmonton Oilers. The deal, 7 years and $38.5 million, had its detractors when it was signed, but there are few examples of UFA deals that have gone as well for the signing team in National Hockey League history.
Hyman's career highs as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs were 21 goals and 25 assists, though never more than 41 points in a single season. He was appreciated for his hard work and depth play, but few, including Maple Leaf management, seemed to see him as a legitimate top line threat. Amazingly, alongside unforced errors like the Zack Kassian extension, former Oilers general manager Ken Holland saw what others missed.
50 Goal Scorer Club
It might be easy to argue that anyone who gets the priviledge of playing with Connor McDavid will end up looking like a superstar, but with more than a decade of comparables, it's easy to see that Hyman stands out. When he's paired with the best player in the game, he knows where to be, and what to do when the puck gets there.
This season, the Hyman-McDavid-Nugent-Hopkins line is the Oilers' most productive in terms of goals scored. The Hyman-Draisaitl-McDavid line is 4th, and the Hyman-McDavid-Savoie line is 6th. It's not an outlier either. in 2024/25 the top two scoring lines were Hyman-Draisaitl-McDavid, and Hyman-McDavid-Nugent-Hopkins as well. And it's worth noting that Hyman's 50-goal season was the one prior.
Noticed when he's absent
If statistics aren't your thing, then you only need to look back to the Oilers' last playoff run. There were two versions of that postseason club. A dominant one that dispatched every Western Conference foe with minimal difficulty, and a Hyman-less Stanley Cup Final version that simply couldn't complete with the eventual champion Florida Panthers.
Hyman's injury, the result of a mix of bad luck and Mason Marchment being a jerk, took him out of the lineup and his point production, physical play and constantly running motor were clearly missed in the games that followed. The series got away from the Oilers, but early on it could have turned on any one play, and Hyman is always good for a few positive outcomes over the course of sixty minutes.
I will also forever believe that he would have been a difference maker for Canada at the Olympics.
There were concerns that Hyman's signing would be one of those ones that paid early dividends and then became an overpayment in its final years. With the constantly increasing salary cap and Hyman's sustained level of play, it seems likely to remain the bargain it's been since the day he came to Edmonton.