Toronto Maple Leafs: Evaluating the Zach Hyman Situation

Toronto Maple Leafs forward, Zach Hyman hasn’t had a great start this season.

In 14 games played, Hyman has 1 goal, 6 assists and a 48% possession rating. It did take the 26 year old Toronto, Ontario native some time to grab his first goal of the season, but he finally was able to do on Saturday night in Pittsburgh.  He now has a 4.5% shooting percentage, so clearly he’s had some bad puck-luck which have impacted his counting totals.

Unfortunately, Hyman’s performance has led many Toronto Maple Leafs fans to debate whether or not Hyman is a good fit alongside John Tavares. So far he has played almost all his minutes with Tavares and obviously while the results haven’t been terrible, they also haven’t been great.

At this point in the season, I’d argue that Hyman deserves more time with John Tavares and Mitch Marner before Mike Babcock moves him to a different line. I’d prefer to give Hyman another 10 to 15 games before we urge Babcock to push Hyman to a different offensive line. The Toronto Maple Leafs still have plenty of games to go and it’s hard to judge Hyman on only 14 games.

If you look back at last season, Hyman had the same point totals after 14 games played. At this point last season, he had 4 goals and 3 assists. He was having more success last season in finding the back of the net, but you still need to give him time. Let’s not forget, Hyman had a lot of chemistry with Auston Matthews and could just be getting adjusted to playing alongside a different centre.

If you don’t like Hyman, I understand. He’ll never be the top line left winger that you want him to be, but we knew that from the get-go. During his time at the University of Michigan and at the AHL level with Toronto Marlies, he was never a prolific scorer. In his 2013-14 season at Michigan, he did have an outstanding season in which he had 54 points in 37 games, but that wasn’t a consistent trend in his collegiate career. In the seasons prior, the highest point total that Hyman was able to reach was 17 points.

My suggestion for Leafs Nation is to give Hyman more time. Tavares, Marner and him will be special together, but you just need to be a bit patient with Hyman.

Trading Hyman?

Not only have Leafs Nation been debating about Hyman’s role, but he’s also been floating around as someone who Kyle Dubas might consider trading if he needed extra cap space to keep Matthews, Marner and William Nylander in Toronto.

I know that Leafs Nation is very concerned about the Nylander contract negotiations, but trading Hyman to keep Nylander would hurt the Toronto Maple Leafs at the same time.

If you take a look at CJ Turtoro’s A3Z Two-Season Player Comparison Tool and compare how Patrick Marleau and Hyman performed just last season, you’ll see that Hyman was better in entry and exit possession. Hyman was noticeably worse than Marleau in Shot Contributions, but teams do need a winger who is speedy and can carry the puck up the ice without fear of coughing up the puck.

Aside from possession and shot contribution metrics, Hyman is also an outstanding forward in the offensive zone when playing 5v5. Last season, he posted a scoring rate of 0.68 Goals/60 and 1.15 Total Assists/60. Plus, he owned a higher Goals/60 than both Nylander and Connor Brown. In terms of Total Assists/60, he put up solid numbers and wasn’t too far off from how Matthews performed.

All-in-all, Hyman will succeed.  The Toronto Maple Leafs just needs to give him some time. With two elite forwards at his side in Tavares and Marner, he has all the pieces to puzzle. I still believe that Hyman will have a great season offensively, but it looks like he just needs some patience.

stats from NHL.com, wikipedia.com, hockey-reference.com, naturalstattrick.com, and CJ Turtoro’s A3Z Two-Season Player Comparison Tool