No. 3: Zach Hyman
Zach Hyman should buy Freddie Andersen a new car if he re-signs in Toronto with a monster deal, because he’s the reason the team will be able to afford to bring him back.
Heading into the season, there was a debate about which player the Leafs should resign. If Andersen had a great year, should they bring him back, or should they reward the consistent 20-goal winger who gives 110 percent every time he steps on the ice.
Now that it feels like there’s a zero percent chance Andersen returns, the likelihood of the Leafs re-signing Hyman has gone up tremendously.
Hyman’s current $2.25M contract was a steal for the Leafs. It was a big reason why the team could afford to sign Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander to their big price-tag’s, because they knew they were getting a huge return on Hyman’s deal.
Hyman is a top-line winger paired because Matthews, but he’s still not someone who’s going to drive a line. He’s going to work his butt off to retrieve pucks, and continue to keep the puck in the offensive zone. He’s a huge value to this team and the Leafs need to bring him back.
The price-tag for Hyman will be incredibly interesting. Ideally, you wouldn’t want him to make more than $4M per season, but it’s quite possible that his camp will be asking for $5M-plus. If he’s asking for that much, it’s going to be very hard for Toronto to re-sign him, without shipping out a big-name player and completely ruining their depth.
However, without worrying about what the eventual price-tag will be, the Leafs need to do everything in their power to bring back Zach Hyman. He wasn’t the issue with this team losing in the First Round and his effort should be rewarded.