Zach Hyman, 50 goal scorer? The former Maple Leaf is thriving in Edmonton

Yes, was hoping to be named to the . Yes, the Toronto raised ex Leaf and current Oiler is disappointed that he didn't get enough votes to join his current teammates like and Leon Draisaitl and his former ones like , Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly at the . But, he's also over it. “It would have been great,” said Hyman in a phone interview after a practice in Edmonton.

“I had so much support from all the fans and from everybody. My Twitter was blowing up like crazy, so it wasn't for a lack of effort from the fans over here. It's completely out of my control. That's just the system. “So, now, I'll have a little break.” Though he won't be at the event, it has been an all star like year for Hyman.

The 31 year old Hyman — not McDavid, not Draisaitl — leads the Oilers with 26 goals, on pace to surpass 50 for the first time in his career. “Whoa, hold on,” says Hyman. “We're still a ways away from that.” He's come a long way from the guy who scored 10 goals as a rookie. “Obviously I play with some really good players and our line (with McDavid and Ryan Nugent Hopkins) has found some really good chemistry, which definitely factors in.

So that's first and foremost,” said Hyman. “And then just for me personally, I just try to get better every year. And it's no different than when I was in Toronto. I started with ten goals. And then everybody's like, you know, 'Well, he can't score.' And then the next year I scored 15.

It's like, oh, 'maybe he can score a little bit.' ” And then I scored 20. The same questions that I get now I was getting then, but now obviously the pace is a little different.” Of all the players the Leafs walked to free agency in the past few years, Hyman is missed the most. He left the Leafs three years ago for a seven year $38.5 million (U.S.) deal that pays him $5.5 million a year.

It seems like a bargain. When the Leafs visit on Tuesday, coach Sheldon Keefe will likely have Pontus Holmberg on left wing beside Auston Matthews and William Nylander, a spot that had been mostly patrolled since Matthews' first NHL game by Hyman. The Leafs — too tight to the cap back in the flat cap era of 2021 — couldn't match the Oilers offer, but have had trouble finding a winger that can do what Hyman does as a tenacious forechecker with speed, a goal scorer and penalty killer.

When Hyman left, the Leafs tried Nick Ritchie in that spot, then landed on Michael Bunting. This year, they've tried Tyler Bertuzzi, Matthew Knies and lately Holmberg. Hyman has been a model of consistency, his work ethic never questioned. Even as the Oilers struggled out of the gate with a 3 9 1 record, Hyman was still performing at a top notch level, always trying to do his bit.

Now the Oilers are on a heater, the best team in the league, having won a franchise record 10th in a row in Montreal on Saturday night, a turnaround attributed by some to new coach Kris Knoblauch. “New coach coming in brings a new voice,” said Hyman. “In the position that we were in, we lost confidence.

With Kris coming in, we got back to playing with confidence and tweaked a few things. “We're a team that, going into the year, everybody marked as a Stanley Cup contender. And then you falter for the first 15 games or so and then everybody writes you off. Now we're getting coming back into our own and playing better than we ever have.” There may not be two more evenly matched teams than the Oilers and Leafs.

Both are top heavy with high end skill on their top two lines. Both have standout defencemen who could use a bit more help on the blue line. Both have had hot and cold goaltending, sometimes by the same netminder. Neither have much by way of cap space wiggle room. Part of the appeal to Hyman of becoming an Oiler was how similar the two teams are: Both talented, and deemed to be Stanley Cup contenders.

“You can make those parallels between Toronto and Edmonton. High end skill,” said Hyman. “One of the reasons why I wanted to come to Edmonton was I saw it as just a good fit. Obviously, I was a good fit in Toronto and had success there. And when I was choosing where to go, I wanted to go to a place that I thought I would have had the most success with and I could win a Stanley Cup with and be able to play with premier players.”.