Scoring 50 goals in the NHL was only done by 96 players before the 2023-24 season started.
When a hockey fan thinks of 50 goals, names like Auston Matthews, Alexander Ovechkin and Connor McDavid come to mind.
Enter Zach Hyman.
Hyman is a player who has never been known for his goal-scoring ability. He is a player that everyone wishes they had on their team. He works hard, goes to the “dirty areas” of the ice, never takes a shift off and always seems to have a positive attitude.
When you watch him play, you would not expect him to be at the top of the league in goal-scoring, yet this season, he is. Hyman scored his 50th goal of the NHL season on March 24th and has scored two more since then to reach 52 goals in 71 games.
Hyman started his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs and it did not take long for coaches in the organization to realize that he was one the hardest working guys in the room.
The hard work and never-say-die effort led him to first-line role-playing alongside Auston Matthews in Matthews’ 2016 NHL debut. From that moment on, Hyman played shotgun alongside Auston Matthews.
He scored 20 goals in two seasons (2018-19 and 2019-20), and his career high in his six seasons with the Maple Leafs was 41 points (21 goals, 20 assists).
After an injury-riddled 2020-21 season that saw the Leafs player produce at his best PPG average, they were unable to retain the winger once he reached UFA due to the stagnant salary cap and the large amounts of money they were paying the “Core 4.”
That off-season, Hyman signed a seven-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers worth $38.5 million (5.5M AAV), a number the Maple Leafs did not even come close to offering him.
Since signing with the Oilers, Hyman has played alongside the best player in the league, Connor McDavid. In his first season (2021-22), he beat his career high in points with 54 points (27 goals, 27 assists), followed by a massive jump in 2022-23 to 84 points (36 goals, 47 assists).
He has also been a near point per game player in the Stanley Cup playoffs, adding 27 points in 28 playoff games with the Oilers.
Out of Hyman’s 52 goals this year, 42 of them have come below the hash marks and in between the two circles: a place where space is hard to come by, yet where Hyman seems to find open areas all the time.
In a much larger sample size, 96 of Hyman’s 115 goals with the Oilers have come from that same area.
Hyman has perfected yet another area of his game and it is paying off in a big way for himself and the Oilers. His contract is arguably the best value in the league right now and if he can continue to produce at a similar rate over the next few years, it could be remembered as one of the best contracts in NHL history.