Toronto Maple Leafs Made Right Decision Letting Zach Hyman Walk

The Toronto Maple Leafs made the right decision by letting Zach Hyman walk in free agency, as he’s set to sign an eight-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans worship players who put their hard-hat on and go to work. They love the guys who aren’t the most skilled at their position, but those who can fight, hit, and go into the dirty areas.

In the past, it was Dave “Tiger” Williams, Darcy Tucker, Wendel Clark and Tie Domi.

Today, it’s Zach Hyman.

The former fifth-round pick was never going to deke out his opponents and score a highlight-reel goal. Instead, he would go into the corner, retrieve the puck, get it out to Auston Matthews and bang home the rebound goal.

Hyman became very famous for doing so and is now becoming a very rich man because of it.

Zach Hyman Signing Is Win-Win for Both Parties

All reports points towards Zach Hyman signing a seven or eight-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers, worth around $40M. That’s a $5M AAV, which would be way too rich for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Oilers are in win-now mode and if they don’t figure something out soon, there’s a high-percentage chance that Hyman and Connor McDavid won’t be in Edmonton by the time his contract is finished.

Oilers’ general manager, Ken Holland, took a chance on Hyman hoping that he can help the Oilers win a Stanley Cup within the next two-three years and will worry about the length of the deal later.

Hyman’s a great player and the Leafs should be very happy that he spent six great seasons here. However, the 29-year-old has had some injury problems and his game doesn’t project a graceful future. If he’s going to be playing with McDavid every night, similar to Matthews, Hyman should score between 20-30 goals every year, but so should any single player who plays with McDavid.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, but players like Matthews and McDavid don’t need $5M wingers playing beside them to create offense. I know it helps to have someone like Mitch Marner or Leon Draisaitl on one wing to either score or pass the centre the puck, but you don’t need a $25-30M line to be great.

Instead, any superstar centre should be able to make a mediocre player look great if they’re paired beside him. Just look at Pascal Dupuis when he played with Sidney Crosby.

Crosby look a player who hadn’t been good in eight seasons and turned him into a 20-goal scorer and Stanley Cup champion. During Pittsburgh’s prime, Dupuis was making $1.5M, and the Penguins flourished because of it.

However, when the Penguins’ foolishly signed him to a four-year deal, worth $3.75M AAV, Dupuis began to have injury issues and only scored 15 goals in three seasons, ultimately retiring before he could finish the fourth year of the deal.

All I’m trying to say is that the Leafs don’t need to pay Hyman $5M AAV to be a successful team. Matthews and Marner have more than enough skill to take a grinding-type player who’s making $2M per season and turn him into a 20-goal scorer. Matthews did it before with Hyman and he can do it again with another player.

Hyman deserves the money he received, but every Leafs fan should be thankful that he didn’t get it in Toronto. You shouldn’t spend big money on glue-guys, despite how loved they are. Also, eight-year deals rarely go well for the team that signs the player, so it’s more than likely that Hyman’s contract will be deadweight by year four.

Kudos to Hyman and on behalf of all Leafs fans, thank you for everything you did. Not only were you a competitor on the ice, but off the ice, you were someone that every little kid should aspire to be.