EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers learned last spring of the perils of ending a season without Zach Hyman.
But what about starting one without him?
“Would I love to start in Game 1? Of course. Will I start Game 1? I don’t know. Not sure yet,” Hyman said this week. “I’ve got another month-ish to get there, which is a long time in the rehab world. Or a short time, depending on how you look at it.”
Hyman is speaking over the phone from Toronto, where he is still fully engaged in rehab after surgery to repair the dislocated wrist and damaged ligaments suffered in the Western Conference Final against Dallas.
He has not yet reached the stage of his rehab process where he can shoot a puck.
“I’m progressing through all the check points,” he explains, likening this process to the major surgery he had on his ACL as a Maple Leaf back in 2019. “Any time you get injured and you have surgery, you have different progression points and marks. So you’ve got to knock off one before you get too excited and go to the next.
“Shooting is the last progression for me, but I’m feeling really good out there and doing everything that I’m supposed to be doing. Stick-handling, passing, all the fun stuff. So all is on track.”
Hyman is a 33-year-old veteran of over 650 NHL games. He’s been through enough that — assuming the rehab progresses properly — missing October’s 12-game slate should not be fatal to his season.
What it won’t help, however, is his bid to make the Canadian Olympic team. There are a finite amount of games between the Oilers’ Oct. 8 opener and early January, when rosters will be finalized.
So Hyman, a master at finding a silver lining in a rough situation, will use his Olympic dream as a motivator both to find his game post-injury, and to lend some urgency to a second straight regular season dedicated to trying to figure out how to win a couple more games in late June.
“Of course, (the Olympic team) brings motivation,” he said. “Inherently, whatever team you’re on — the Oilers in my case —they’re going to get a more motivated player, per se. Every year you’re going in with motivation, but this obviously adds another level of motivation. Your Olympic tryouts are your NHL games.
“There’s no training camp or anything to make this team. It’s a ‘watch what you do on the ice’ type of evaluation.”
Here in Edmonton, goalie Stuart Skinner boldly informed the media in his first scrum that one of the goals this season was to make the Olympic team. Hyman is a step closer, having made the initial long list, and a stellar opening half of the season on Connor McDavid’s flank might just punch his ticket to Italy.
“Just going to that (Olympic orientation) camp was a motivator, seeing the players that were there,” Hyman said. “It’s a dream of every player to play for their country at the highest level, best on best, and unfortunately my generation has never really had that opportunity. Connor has never gone to an Olympic Games, which is crazy.”
Nearing his mid-30s, Hyman’s plan of Stanley Cup success in Edmonton is only half-fulfilled. The Oilers have advanced to two straight Cups — he played in one of them — and now he’s back at base camp, with another 82 games and three playoff rounds still to be scaled before the Oilers would have their next chance to crack the code.
It was a different summer this time around, for Hyman.
“Personally, it was a lot easier for me because I had something to focus on right away, which was the rehab. I also didn’t play in the Final,” he said. “It was really hard to watch, but at the same time, I had zero control over anything that was going on on the ice. I had less of a lingering feeling that you could have changed something. The year before, you’d think about, ‘Oh, what would have happened if I scored that goal?’ or whatever.”
Every player dreams of winning a Stanley Cup. No one even considers the mental toll, however, that losing back-to-back Finals exacts.
“It’s disappointing. It’s very, very difficult,” he said. “The second time, I think we’ll be more prepared going into this year. Really understanding that, even though we didn’t win the last two years, there are a lot of things that you could take away that are a success.
“Only one team wins, and unfortunately we weren’t that team. But we were better than 30 other teams, and we’ve won the West two years in a row. We’re a really good team, and let’s get back to that right away.”
One last try: Will he be skating with the team when camp opens on Sept. 17?
“Don’t know any of that stuff yet,” he smiled. “But it’ll be a good question to ask me in a week from now.”
