If this iteration of the Edmonton Oilers wants to get over the hump, its will must match its skill. There are other factors at play (e.g. strategy and structure), of course, but sturdiness in the trenches is essential in the spring.
Fortunately, the club’s top-line plumber has lifted his game to a whole new plane in 2023-24, soaring above his old standards by hunkering down in the dirt.
Here’s how Zach Hyman dominates the guts of the ice.
Puck Pursuit
It goes without saying that the Oilers’ odds of winning skyrocket when the puck is on Connor McDavid’s stick. Since he boasts the jaw-dropping wheels and puck wizardry required to manufacture scoring chances out of the blue, feeding him is indeed a…pretty good idea.
As such, playoff teams will game-plan around preventing as many of those touches as possible.
That’s where Hyman (EDM 18) enters the picture. The 31-year-old’s blend of physicality (6’1”, 206 lbs), powerful straight-line skating (75th percentile in top speed) and persistence bridges the gap between dump-ins and recoveries:
While Hyman scraps for possession with the best of them, he doesn’t display Brandon Hagel’s endless motor or Ryan O’Reilly’s surgical stick work. He does roll up his sleeves and wield an active twig, but it’s his mass that fuels his proficiency along the boards. He’s an absolute tank down low—and the fact that he also plays low puts him in position to wrench under sticks, snatch loose pucks, seal the wall, etc.
That heaviness is a real nuisance to the opposition. Even when he can’t regain possession by himself, his shoulder-to-shoulder fortitude taxes defenders, bending their posture enough to impede the breakout while buying time for Edmonton’s reinforcements to arrive.
Intimidating? No. Exhausting? No question.
Hyman’s line on the puck is another major asset to the Oilers. He quickly processes the optimal path to retrieval as well as whether to engage the body or biscuit first, which opens the door for his hustle to prevail:
Off a faceoff loss, he identifies Thomas Harley (DAL 55) as the pass recipient and hopes to neutralize the Stars defenseman before the puck finds Jason Robertson (DAL 21) up the boards. Sensing that a check won’t stifle Harley’s rim attempt, he prioritizes stick placement, cutting a tight angle between the blueliner and net to establish outside leverage.
Harley appears to believe he has more time than he does. In his mind, at worst, he’ll absorb a hit for his troubles. Instead, Hyman smothers the pass, rips the puck off his stick and Edmonton can resume its OZ designs.
Naturally, these sudden changes of possession become all the more precarious with McDavid on the ice:
Hyman begins this sequence by aggressively denying the space between Ross Johnston (ANA 44) and Pavel Mintyukov (ANA 34). Refusing to concede that ice discourages the rearguard from both advancing north-south and floating a link-up pass into the heart of the DZ. Under pressure, the rookie bobbles the puck and Hyman seizes his opportunity to flip possession.
McDavid then swoops in to convert a broken play into a premium chance.
Hyman’s knack for bringing the opposition’s transition play to a screeching halt is generating spectacular results. At 5-on-5, he spends 46.5% of his shifts in the OZ vs. a mere 35.8% in the DZ:
In addition, he paces all NHL forwards in expected goal rate:
Per the numbers, no one tilts the ice to this extent.
More importantly, Hyman’s grunt work enables the Oilers to bypass the opposition’s NZ blockade and hand the puck back to McDavid on the attack. You’ve only delayed the inevitable. Maybe pissed off the league’s foremost offensive weapon in the process.
Forcing Edmonton to chip and chase no longer feels like cause for celebration, does it?
Net-Front Offense
Those who have followed Hyman’s NHL journey will know that, while he remains a stellar forechecker, he doesn’t reach full throttle as often as he did in Toronto.
There’s a reason for that.
On an Oilers squad that craves a net-front presence to capitalize on McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s otherworldly passing, he now burns just as much energy absorbing contact as he does delivering it. His shot chart reveals where the vast majority of his offense originates from:
We can’t ignore the toll this exacts on you. Cross-checks are part and parcel of this life. Your average forward isn’t game to endure such punishment on a nightly basis, but Hyman takes a licking and keeps on ticking in the goalmouth.
As you might expect, he grades out nicely in tip (7th) and deflection goals (1st). The main difference this year is the frequency of 5-star service he’s receiving from McDavid. He’s emerged as his captain’s primary finisher, which is quite the stroke of luck because McDavid has embraced his playmaking once more (100 assists) after his own goal-scoring explosion in 2022-23. An avalanche of tap-in opportunities has yielded 44 markers from high-danger areas:
Unlike smaller wingers who rely on their guile to shake free, Hyman’s tack is straightforward. He’s largely stapled to the doorstep.
He does hold a couple of tricks up his sleeve, though. He adopts a wide base near the crease, turning into an immovable boulder and creating the few feet of separation he needs to pull the trigger.
Moreover, he connects his forecheck to his offense by initiating his routes from below the goal line. This secures inside position on defensemen, as blanketing him early would roll out the red carpet for McDavid and company to storm the slot. Should you choose to focus on his teammates, he can wreak havoc on your goaltender’s composure. A lose-lose proposition.
When Edmonton dishes the puck to the right side of the OZ—especially on the PP—Hyman will fade toward the back post, switching from an in-your-face disruptor to a sneaky forehand target:
Note his patience vs. the Flames. Instead of flaring out and revealing his hand too soon, he lets McDavid claim sufficient depth to both sell the wrister and achieve attractive lateral spacing. The shot threat, Hyman’s adjustment and McDavid’s passing acumen are too much for Calgary’s goaltender to handle.
Generally speaking, however, this is no-frills stuff. He weighs on you, shift after shift, wearing you down in due course:
Against the Kings, his clunky off-puck spin move fails to dupe Jordan Spence (LA 21), but he nevertheless overwhelms him through brawn, bulldozing the young blueliner from the hashes to the goal line. Spence is trapped in such dire straits that he stumbles into his netminder as Hyman obtains two cracks at a rebound before any King can intervene.
That’s a fitting illustration of his game. Messy, weighty, undeniably effective.
His career-high 54 goals (18 more than his previous best) trail only Auston Matthews and Sam Reinhart. It’s not as though he’s riding some wild SH% either. No player in the NHL averages more expected goals:
As tempting as it may be to call him a product of McDavid’s genius, Edmonton’s 1C benefits from his winger’s efforts too:
Regardless of who slots in at LW, the magician and yeoman form a dynamic duo. McDavid’s offensive exploits feel like a cheat code, whereas Hyman has become more stubborn than ever in the slot. He’s continually ready to chip away, one greasy shot at a time, until he breaks your will.
The eighth-year pro earned his NHL stripes with a blue-collar, “someone’s gotta do it” attitude. He’s since honed his craft to the point where few do it a higher level. The pressure that his pluck exerts on opponents is astronomical.
Equally motivated teammates would go a long way toward, well, the Oilers going a longer way in the postseason.