Toronto Maple Leafs: Zach Hyman Should Play on the First Line

On Friday, the Toronto Maple Leafs placed Andreas Johnsson on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) with a leg injury.

With Johnsson out, a major hole opens up in the Toronto Maple Leafs roster.

That first line winger alongside Auston Matthews and William Nylander is up for the taking for a short time

. But the Leafs seem to already be filling it up with Pontus Aberg, who was called up to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday to replace Johnsson.

Toronto Maple Leafs First Line

Only time will tell whether or not Aberg works out on that first line, but if he doesn’t, there’s one specific player who comes to mind who should be moved up.

Zach Hyman has been misused so far this season and although he will be getting his chance to play on the second line against the St. Louis Blues, I think the Leafs should try playing him alongside Matthews and Nylander.

Let’s throw it back to the days before John Tavares was a Leaf. In Matthews’ first two seasons of the league (2016-17 and 2017-18) we saw the classic first line of Hyman, Matthews and Nylander.

The line worked out well for the most part, with all three players sharing moderate success together in their first two season’s in the league.

Hyman is the perfect player to play alongside two offensive studs. He’s chippy and he wins his puck battles to get the puck out of the dangerous areas for his linemates. This proved useful in helping Matthews net 40 goals in his first season.

Once the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Tavares, Hyman was moved to a line with Tavares and Mitch Marner.

I will say that I liked him on this line much better. They rose to new heights in the 2018-19 season with all three of them reaching career highs in points (Hyman netted 41 points in 71 games). (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Tavares and Marner clicked and Hyman got them the puck. Meanwhile, Nylander’s off year resulted in him and Matthews being split up for the most part anyways.

The Problem with this Season

Heading into this season, Hyman was out with a torn ACL which made him miss 19 games. By the time he was back, his spot alongside Tavares and Marner was lost, partly due to Tavares and Marner each suffering their own injuries. Things got messy and the team had to juggle the lineups quite a bit.

But now with both of them back, we have yet to see that line reunited (which we will see Saturday night).

Instead, Ilya Mikheyev has been the left winger for Tavares and Marner while Hyman has played on the third line alongside Alexander Kerfoot and Kasperi Kapanen. Meanwhile, Matthews and Nylander are still looking for a truly effective fit on their line.

Use Hyman Properly

It was just announced today that Hyman will finally be playing alongside Tavares and Marner for the first time this season. Although this will be great, I still think experimenting with Hyman on that first line, which has already been playing great, would be interesting to see.

I actually really like Mikheyev on that second line and I wouldn’t change that if it’s unneeded. But I don’t think Johnsson is the right fit for the first line anyways and I think Hyman could be used much better if given a bigger role.

So what strikes me the most is in Johnsson’s absence, we should be seeing Hyman utilized properly.

This is the time to be a little more experimental and try that classic line out again–play him with two offensive leader who he can get the puck to by going to the dirty areas for them.

Right now, Matthews and Nylander are both playing great together, they’ve been the Leafs best offensive pair. If Hyman can get the puck to them more than Johnsson or even Aberg can, we’d see an even bigger boost to that line.

Yes, Johnsson brings some more creativity and offensive power of his own to that line, but I don’t think it works with two stars beside him.

I say Sheldon Keefe should try Hyman on that first line at times to see how they do, since Matthews and Nylander could use a little more help to thrive themselves.

Again, I don’t mind Hyman on the second line, but we do already know Mikheyev can slot in alongside Tavares and Marner. Testing the waters a little would still be beneficial considering Johnsson’s spot on that line is questionable once he comes back.

Depending on how Aberg does with the two, switching Hyman in would be a good call. We’ll see how he does with Tavares and Marner as well, but it wouldn’t hurt to try and revitalize that old line. Let me know what you think in the comments.