EDMONTON – Edmonton Oilers winger Zach Hyman expects to be ready for the start of next season after undergoing surgery last week to repair a dislocated right wrist but can’t say for certain that’ll be the case.
Hyman immediately dropped his stick and headed to the Oilers dressing room after being hit in the neutral zone by Dallas Stars winger Mason Marchment midway through the first period of Game 4 of the Western Conference final last Tuesday. He had season-ending surgery the next day.
“I knew it wasn’t good when I got hit,” Hyman said. “As a player, you know when something’s not right. Right away, I just felt my wrist kind of go on me and, even then, you still think, whatever it is you’ll be able to play through it or there’ll be a chance you can play through it.
“I think I was still delusional I could play through it until after the surgery. I don’t think I fully grasped it until later. Then you kind of get your head around it. Some things in life you can’t control, and this is one of them.”
The first Oiler to check in on Hyman after his injury was Oilers captain Connor McDavid before Game 4 against the Stars was even over.
“It was a moment as a player where you’re heartbroken,” Hyman said. “I hadn’t fully grasped it yet and just sitting in the kitchen, not even eating, just trying to figure out what was going on and I think I knew at that moment it was done. My season was done.
“He was the first one to come over, mid-game in between the periods. He called me over and gave me a big hug. Honestly, that’s when I broke down.”
Hyman was amid a historic playoff run. He was on track to break the NHL record for most hits in a single postseason. Hyman was up to 111 hits, just 15 short of then-Tampa Bay Lightning winger Blake Coleman’s mark of 126 in 2020.
He also had five goals and 11 points in 15 games a year after leading the league by scoring 16 times in 25 playoff games as a second act to a 54-goal campaign.
The Oilers lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final a year ago. It was Hyman who spoke up in the dressing room, assuring his teammates they’d be back. For him not to be able to play now that the Oilers have returned to the Final is a tough pill to swallow.
“Life has a funny way of working,” Hyman said. “I truly felt that as a group – having gone through what we went through last year and in that moment – I knew that most of our guys were coming back, and I knew we had a hunger and a fire to get back to this point and not just get back but to win.
“Our team this year has been the ultimate example of a team and guys stepping up at different times, guys filling in different roles. We won series without Ekky (Mattias Ekholm), one of our best players. The timing worked out that when I was coming out, he was coming in. Just looking forward to cheering the guys on. We’re here and we’re ready.”
The Oilers had a video call with Hyman after winning the Western Conference final in Dallas last Thursday, which brought him to tears.
“It meant the world. I wasn’t expecting it,” Hyman said. “It was the day after my surgery. I was sitting on the couch with my wife and mother-in-law, just watching. It caught me off guard. I was crying. It was really emotional.
“You just feel so much a part of the team, and for them to do that in that moment meant a lot. I’ll be with the team the whole way, acting like I’m playing but obviously not.”
Hyman said he plans on traveling with his teammates to South Florida for road games to be a part of the Stanley Cup Final.
It’s not like the Oilers need any extra motivation to avenge last year’s loss to the Panthers and win the Cup, but playing for Hyman is it.
“When you have such a heart-and-soul guy like Zach, obviously the way he plays it speaks for itself,” longtime teammate Connor Brown said. “What he means to guys in this room is hard to articulate. When a guy like that goes down, there’s definitely a rallying call, and I think guys pull up their straps to kind of play for him.”
