Raise your hand if you had Zach Hyman scoring 40 goals in 56 games played this season. Keep your hand up if you’re not lying. If your hand is still up, you’re one heck of a prophet.
In a season that has seen the Edmonton Oilers reach new lows to the point of firing head coach Jay Woodcroft to new highs of a 16-game win streak with Kris Knoblauch, the one thing that has been truly consistent all season long is Zach Hyman.
He has emerged as a standout player for the Edmonton Oilers, becoming the second player in the NHL this season to reach the remarkable feat of scoring 40 goals.
Hyman can’t stop scoring
No one has been on Auston Matthews‘ level this season. He reached 50 goals before anyone else even sniffed 40. Currently at 52, he’s the near-certain winner of this year’s Rocket Richard Trophy. However, the race for second has been tight, and Hyman has emerged as the leader in that group.
Zach Hyman was tied with Nikita Kucherov and David Pastrnak with 38 goals. However, they’ve both played 60 games. In Hyman’s 56th appearance of the year, he scored two goals to pass them at a much faster pace, while also leapfrogging Sam Reinhart who sits at 39 goals.
Another career season for Hyman
Last year, Hyman posted a career-high 36 goals. This was a huge jump from his previous high of 27 goals. In the same game that he tied that mark this year, Hyman flat-out set a new career-high by scoring two goals for his 36th and 37th markers of the year.
With plenty of runway left in the season, a second consecutive season of Hyman demolishing a previous career-high seemed inevitable. So far, he’s on the right track.
With 40 goals in 56 games, that’s a pace of 0.71 goals per game. If he plays out the rest of the season, he’d be on track for 58 goals. That’d be 22 more goals than his previous career-high. So after increasing his best goal output by 33% last year, he’s currently on track to increase the already much higher mark by a nearly unfathomable 61%.
A strong finish to the season
Hyman may keep scoring at this pace. He might slow down. Heck, he might even increase his output and go for the elusive 60-goal season. No matter what happens, this season has been nothing short of spectacular for the forward, and his output has been a huge factor in the Oilers’ success.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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