When the Edmonton Oilers signed Zach Hyman in free agency, many questioned the contract as too much of a term or an overpay for the sort of player who usually gets overpaid on the market.
Instead, Hyman has proven to be the absolute perfect fit alongside the best player in the world, Connor McDavid, as the Oilers continue to push for an elusive Stanley Cup.
Hyman's propensity for scoring goals almost exclusively in close to the net has been mummified online, but it's the exact touch in that area and physicality that allows him to get there that makes this fit hum.
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Zach Hyman the Perfect Fit with Connor McDavid
A general rule of thumb that NHL general managers should follow in free agency is avoiding giving long, expensive contracts to complimentary players who thrive alongside elite players.
This problem historically compounds itself when that player is a big, physical winger with a lot of miles on his body who might not age well as he ages and his skating declines.
Zach Hyman checked all of those red flag boxes when he hit the market. He had just finished up a run in Toronto where he developed into a top-six contributor by finding success on Auston Matthews' left wing.
Edmonton signed him to a seven-year, $38.5 million contract before the 2021-2022 season that felt like it could work out but did call back to a massive error the Oilers made when they signed Milan Lucic in free agency five years prior.
The Oilers had long been looking for a winger they could trust to staple to McDavid's wing over the long term, and perhaps it's Hyman's out-of-this-world hockey sense and experience doing a similar thing with Matthews that has made this all work so well.
When he left Toronto, Hyman had a career high of 21 goals. Then, on the receiving end of McDavid's regularly dazzling skating and passing plays, he scored 36 last year.
He followed that up with 54 this year, a stunning number that even the biggest of his believers could never have predicted when he broke into the league five years after being a fifth-round pick of the Florida Panthers.
This has all carried over into this postseason, where the Oilers are one round away from making their first Stanley Cup Final since 2006.
Hyman leads the league in goals this postseason with 11, and nobody else has reached 10. Draisaitl and McDavid lead the postseason in points, and as silly as it sounds to say, they haven't been as dominant as they usually are in the postseason.
Hyman's ability to continue scoring goals has been a big boon to the Oilers, who survived a close call in a seven-game series against Vancouver. The 31-year-old found the back of the net in both Games 6 and 7 to play an instrumental role in getting his team over the line.
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