January 9, 2024 by Eric Friesen

Zach Hyman scored his fourth career NHL hat trick, and third of the season, to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

Hyman’s hat trick on Hockey Night in Canada moved into a tie for fourth in the NHL in goals, with 25. He also tied Auston Matthews for the most hat tricks in the league this season.

With the victory, the Oilers extended their winning streak to seven games and climbed into the second wild-card position in the Western Conference. After a dismal start to the 2023-24 campaign, the Oilers have gone 17-6-0 in their last 23 games, giving them the second-highest points percentage in the league (.750) since November 11.

Despite having the best offensive season of his career and being near the top of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy race, Hyman insists that he’s not a natural goal-scorer.

“I just score in different ways,” Hyman told CBC’s Scott Oake following the Oilers victory at Rogers Place on Saturday. “I score more like grinders do, around the net and finding pucks. Obviously, this year I’ve been able to find another level and score some prettier ones, but it helps when you play with guys like Connor, Leo, Nuge and Bouchy. So, we’ve got a plethora of guys who make plays. So, I’m very lucky.”

Can Hyman score 50 goals?

Since joining the Oilers in 2021-22, Hyman has continued to elevate his offensive game and make his $5.5 million cap hit look like one of the best bargains in the league. Hyman scored 27 goals in 76 games in the first season of his Oilers career. Even if he never progressed from there, you could make the case that he lived up to his contract.

Then, last season, Hyman exploded offensively, scoring 36 goals in 79 games, good for seventh in the league amongst left wingers. He also had six disallowed goals, which would have seen him hit the 40-goal plateau for the first time. Now, it appears Hyman is destined to score 50 goals this season.

With 17 goals in his last 18 games, Hyman is on pace for a remarkable 58 goals in 81 games. No Oilers’ winger to score 50 goals in a single season since Jari Kurri in 1986-87 (Craig Simpson score 56 goals in 1987-88, but only 43 with the Oilers). Can Hyman continue to score an nearly a 60-goal pace the rest of the way? Probably not. But I do think he will clear 50.

The 31-year-old scores most of his goals through sheer determination and grit. He excels at deflecting shots, finding loose pucks in the crease and burying rebounds. However, he also has a deceptive release that can fool goalies and shows quick hands in tight.

Hyman has the added benefit of playing alongside world’s best player in Connor McDavid, and another point-per-game player in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the most productive line in the NHL this year. He also plays an important role as the net-front presence on an elite power-play unit, one that set the NHL record for efficiency at 32.4% in 2022-23.

After scoring a league-leading 64 goals last season, McDavid has returned to his more natural instinct as a pass-first player. The Oilers captain is on pace for a remarkable 94 assists in 80 games this year, and considering that Hyman will be target for many of his brilliant passes in prime scoring areas, his chances of tallying 50 goals increase significantly.

Hyman should be an all-star

Hyman should have been named to the All-Star Game last season, and if it wasn’t for the rule that every NHL club had to have a representative there, then he would have made it on merit. But, this year, he’s even more deserving of the honour.

McDavid was recently named to his seventh NHL All-Star Game, where he will be one of the captains. Draisaitl will likely get voted in, too. They are the two best players in the league, they have been there before, and they will go again. But it would surely mean more to Hyman, his teammates and Oilers fans to see him at the 2024 All-Star Game later this month.

And since this could be his only chance to have the All-Star experience, and the fact that it’s in his hometown of Toronto, I think it would be a career highlight for him.