Toronto Maple Leafs: Don’t Sleep on Zach Hyman for Fantasy

Toronto Maple Leafs forward, Zach Hyman is a solid sleeper for fantasy hockey.

If you have an upcoming fantasy hockey draft, I’d advise you to keep Hyman on your radar. He’d be a solid late round selection and could potentially be one of your top scorers.

Last season, Hyman appeared in every regular season game for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was able to register 15 goals, 25 assists and a 10.1 shooting percentage. Overall, it was a solid year for Hyman. His totals could have been higher, but his line-mate, Auston Matthews‘ injury-bug set him back.

Tavares, Hyman and Marner

While it’s possible that Hyman will continue to play with Matthews this season, he could also end up with Tavares, and if he does that should really help his point totals.

In early July, Ian Tulloch of The Athletic Toronto wrote a post about Tavares and how he makes his wingers better. Tulloch explained in his post that when the New York Islanders paired Tavares with wingers including Matt Moulson, Thomas Vanek, Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo, Anders Lee and P.A. Parenteau that their point totals improved.

In the below tweet, Tulloch shared the above wingers point totals per 82 games when paired with Tavares versus without him.

It’s safe to say that if Hyman is paired with Tavares that his point totals will go up. If Tavares can make Moulson look like an elite forward, anything is possible.

In addition, Hyman could see sometime playing alongside Tavares and Matthews on the power-play unit.  It would be odd to see him on the power-play since he hasn’t been featured on a NHL-level power-play unit before, but it seems like he would be a solid net-front presence.

My prediction is that will change this season. With James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak on new teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs will have to depend on a few different forwards on special teams. I believe that Babcock will choose Hyman and Andreas Johnsson to join the power-play. Hyman and Johnsson offer the Maple Leafs a tremendous amount of speed and solid puck-handling. Both attributes could very much come in handy when the Maple Leafs are playing 5v4 or 5v3. If this does come to fruition, Hyman’s fantasy value only increases.

Hyman is a solid fantasy hockey sleeper. He’s shown that he can be an above-average top six forward in the NHL and has the potential to have a monstrous season. Worst case if my prediction doesn’t become a reality, it isn’t a big deal. You aren’t taking Hyman in the top rounds instead you are taking him with one of your last picks.

There is absolutely no risk. If Hyman doesn’t pan out than you can go grab someone else off of waivers.

stats from NHL.com