The Toronto Maple Leafs may have made a huge mistake by letting Zach Hyman walk last summer.
Former Toronto Maple Leafs left-winger, Zach Hyman signed a seven-year deal worth $5.5M AAV to join the Edmonton Oilers last offseason. At the time, it felt like an overpayment, however, after five games, they may name a street after Hyman in Edmonton.
After five games, Hyman is on-pace for 82 goals, while after seven games, Mitch Marner is on-pace for 0 goals. Something doesn’t seem right here.
Hyman has five goals in five games and has been everything the Oilers expected. He’s a hard-working player who can drive a line and score in the dirty areas. He knows how to play with very good players and compliments very skilled players immensely, especially on the power-play.
He’s doing the exact same thing he did beside Auston Matthews with Connor McDavid and it’s driving Leafs fans crazy.
Maybe The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Have Signed Zach Hyman
I know it’s a small sample-size but the Leafs haven’t been good without Hyman, while the Oilers have a perfect 5-0 record with him. Hyman’s the straw the stir’s the drink and has really shown his worth in Edmonton, thus far.
The Leafs left-side is hurting without Hyman. Michael Bunting has been a nice fit and replacement for Hyman (especially at $950K per year) but who knows how sustainable that is. Hyman isn’t going to score every night, but at this pace, he should easily finish with 25-30 goals.
That offensive production is hard to replace and Toronto is finding it difficult to replace it. As previously mentioned, Bunting has been fine, but Nick Ritchie has been weak so far, and Alex Kerfoot is not a top-six left-winger.
Ritchie was supposed to be a big-body left-winger who could get 20 goals beside Matthews, but it looks like he’s closer to playing with the Toronto Marlies than doing that.
The Leafs need serious help on the left-side and if they still had Hyman, they may not be off to this awful start.
Signing Hyman to a seven-year deal never really would have made sense in Toronto and his $5.5M contract was expensive, but sometimes those illogical decisions in the long-run help a team short-term. Edmonton made the decision to win-now and it seems to be working, whereas Toronto decided to find a replacement for one-fifth of the price and it’s costing them.
The fact that Toronto lost Hyman (for free) who was their most consistent forward last season is devastating. Hyman worked hard every shift and he was always a reliable player to rally the team, even if he wasn’t scoring.
I know it’s only been seven games, but not re-signing Hyman may go down as one of the worst moves in Kyle Dubas’ tenure, if things continue to go sideways.