With 51 goals this year, Zach Hyman has scored 32 more goals than he has assisted on. If you are a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, then you know that this makes Hyman one of the most valuable players on the team, since goals are worth so much more than assists (or so we’ve all been told since 2016).
Many hockey fans call the player with the biggest goal-assist differential the “Cy Young” winner, which is awarded to the MLB’s best pitcher in each league, where more wins and less losses tends to be a major criteria.
Some people look at it as a tongue-in-cheek award, and nothing all that impressive. But scoring more goals than assists in a season is something Wayne Gretzky never once achieved in his NHL career, so you tell me that it’s not impressive now—although he did score two goals to just one assist in his first playoffs in 1979–80, so I guess that counts?
So with Hyman’s huge differential, who have been some other players in Oilers history who have abided by the “shoot-first” mentality?
There’s always an argument on how one qualifies for this award, however. Is it the biggest differential? Is it limited to players with more than 10 goals? Less than 10 assists? Is it limited to players who have 0 assists? Is it the one that just seems the most ridiculous/hilarious for whatever reason?
I have decided to not choose, and instead will pick an Oiler for a variety of Cy Young categories.
Biggest goal-assist differential
This is the easiest one to decide, in that it is a purely objective measure.
The honour goes to Craig Simpson in 198–-88, his first season with the Oilers after being traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Despite only playing in 59 games for the Oilers due to the mid-season trade, Simpson still led the team in goals with 43 (tied with Jari Kurri who took 80 games) to just 21 assists, a differential of 22 goals. The next highest differential was Petr Klima in 1992–93, when he doubled his 16 assists with 32 goals.
Simpson would have two more Cy Young seasons with the Oilers, although with nowhere near the 22 goal differential.
With the way Hyman is going so far, he has a very good chance of shattering Simpson’s record.
Most Cy Young seasons
If I asked you who had the most Cy Young seasons in an Oilers uniform, who would come to mind?
Jari Kurri? Nope, he only had two, same as Brandon Manning of all people. Kurri does have the highest goal total in a Cy Young season when he scored 71 goals to 64 assists in.
Maybe a goal scorer that you wouldn’t initially think of like Petr Klima? Well, while Klima did score more goals in his four seasons in an Oilers uniform than assists (118 to 85), he missed out on going 4-for-4 by four goals in his first season (if only it would have been in his fourth season). His three ties him with Ryan Jones and likely Evander Kane this year.
Glenn Anderson? He’s close with four, which ties him in third with the likes of Louie Debrusk
Oh, it has to be Ryan Smyth right? Wrong, he’s second with five seasons.
Given the criteria leads to someone just scoring one goal, then its probably some career fourth liner that no one has heard of? While there’s some merit to that, you have to remember that players like that don’t tend to have the staying power to last six seasons to do that.
The leader, having posted six seasons, was Ethan Moreau. He surprisingly didn’t do it all with small 1–0 type numbers either. His seasons consisted of some pretty big gaps of 17–10, 11–5, and 20–12. He then had some close seasons of 5–4 (in 25 games) and 14–12. Luckily for him, he managed to sneak in one goal in his seven games in 2006–07 before getting a season ending injury to get the record sixth season (ok, maybe “lucky” isn’t exactly the right term). But it’s fitting that this wasn’t a journeyman type player, but rather a guy who played 11 seasons for the Oilers, was the team captain and scored more goals than assist his entire time with the team (112–100).
Evander Kane potentially has a chance to dethrone Moreau, as he is on pace for his third straight season with more goals than assists, and still has two more seasons under contract. It would require him to sign for a further two years in order to do it though.
Cy Young with single digit assists
Since the last time a baseball pitcher won a Cy Young with double digit losses was 2010 (when both AL and NL winners had double digit losses), it can be argued that a Cy Young winner should have more than 10 goals but less than 10 assists, to show a real discrepancy in goal scoring vs playmaking.
Doing that takes out some good Cy Young candidates over the years, such Raffi Torres with 27–14 in 2005–06 and Patrick Maroon with 27–15 in 2016–17.
You’d think that the winner here would have been during the ‘80s, and you’d be close to correct, as Martin Gelinas is second with 17 goals to eight assists in 1989–90. Roman Oksiuta tied the nine goal differential with 11–2 in 1994–95.
The Oilers have had a fair amount of players in this category the last few years: Jesse Puljujarvi (12–8) and Drake Caggiula (13–7) in 2017–18, Josh Archibald (12–9) in 2019–20, and Derek Ryan (13–7) last year.
But it was Ryan Jones who set the record in 2010–11, scoring 18 goals, 11 more than his seven assists, which not just set the Oilers record but won him the league Cy Young that year.
Currently, it doesn’t appear as though any Oilers will beat Ryan Jones this year, but one record is enough right?
Reverse Cy Young
Let’s switch things up with a “reverse” Cy Young.
Now, we could do the biggest negative differential between goals and assists, but I’m thinking the guy who had a low of 35 and high of 111 more assists than goals is a runaway answer here that isn’t as fun.
So instead, let’s go for a “perfect” reverse, where it is the most assists while not scoring a goal.
In four of the team’s first five seasons, this category was won by a goalie, including Grant Fuhr setting an NHL record with 14 assists in 1983–84.
But the season before that, Lee Fogolin beat that and set the record that still stands today, notching 18 assissts without scoring a goal.
Ladislav Smid, however, has been the reverse Cy Young winner three times, with four assists in 2007–08, 11 assists in 2008–09, and 10 in 2010–11. He would have had it in 2009–10 too with eight assists, but he managed to sneak in one goal that year.
“Perfect” Cy Young
Since we went with the “perfect” reverse Cy Young, what about the record for a “perfect” regular Cy Young?
Well, the Oilers have four players tied for second place, scoring three goals in a season with no assists: Iain Fraser, Jani Rita, Linus Omark and Matt Hendricks.
But in 1997–98, rookie defenceman Craig Millar scored four goals in just 11 games. Those would be his only goals in an Oilers uniform, and would stand as his career high in goals. But it’s enough to hold this record.
Weirdest Cy Young
In 2020–21, Gaaten Haas scored two goals to one assist in his 34 games. Why is this so weird? There were six other Cy Young scorers that year, so what makes this the one standout?
Well, in 1990–91, exactly 30 years previously, the Oilers had a Cy Young scorer named David Haas, who scored one goal and no assists in five games.
From what I can tell, there is no relation between the the Haas (Haasi?), as it appears David played in every central European league other than Switzerland.
Playoff Cy Young
Given the post season is just around the corner, let’s look at who the playoff Cy Young winner has been in years past.
In theory, the playoffs are an easier time to be a Cy Young winner, given the less amount of games played that doesn’t allow for reversion to the mean.
You would think this record was held by someone from the 80’s teams, and you’d be close to being right.
Mark Messier set the initial differential record of nine with 15–6 in 1982–83, while Jari Kurri set the highest goal mark in a Cy Young postseason with 19–12 in 1984–85. In recent years the Oilers have had some contenders, such as in 2021–22, when Evander Kane tied Messier’s nine goal differential with 13–4, with Zach Hyman close behind going 11–5, as well as last year when Leon Draisaitl managed 13–5.
But the record for goal differential goes to the guy who every (millenial) Oilers fan thinks of when it comes to playoff heroics: Fernando Pisani.
In the 2005–06 Cinderella run, Pisani notched 14 goals to four assists, a differential of 10 goals. Can Hyman, Kane, Draisaitl, or McDavid beat it this year?
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
