The Toronto Maple Leafs, perhaps more than many other teams, could be in trouble thanks to a stagnant or even declining salary cap next season. Depending on what happens with the playoffs this year and how the NHL and NHLPA decide to go about things, a team like Toronto that has so much money tied up in their core forwards could be looking to cut costs on the fringes of the roster. Moving forward, re-signing other players may be even more difficult, especially if they are performing well enough to deserve a raise.
Enter Zach Hyman, the hometown boy who is on a contract that ends after the 2020-21 season. Hyman signed a four-year, $9MM deal in the summer of 2017 after his first full season in the NHL. He had scored just 10 goals and 28 points that year but quickly become a fan and Mike Babcock favorite thanks to his tireless work ethic and impressive forechecking ability. That four-year deal has paid off in spades for the Maple Leafs, as Hyman jumped up to 40 points in his second full season, 21 goals in his third and had already scored 21 in just 51 games this year.
That pace was good enough for 33 goals over a full 82-game season, quite the performance for a player earning just $2.25MM against the cap. It’s also a player that the Maple Leafs would obviously be interested in bringing back, especially since he will be only 29 when his current deal expires.
If the team does want to extend the bang-and-crash winger, he’s open to it. On a conference call with reporters today including Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com, Hyman explained that he would “love to stay in Toronto” and would “love to be a long-time Leaf.”
That should come as no surprise, given Hyman’s roots in the city, but it also will instantly perk up fan’s ears in hopes of a “hometown discount.” A 30-goal winger (if he ever gets there) with Hyman’s kind of penalty-killing prowess would go for a lot more than $2.25MM per season on the open market, a number that the Maple Leafs may not be able to afford if they have any plans on investing more into their defensive group, or re-signing Frederik Andersen beyond the 2020-21 campaign.
Even if that contract negotiation is a little down the road, Hyman had other good news for Maple Leafs’ fans. The suspended season has given him even more time to rest a knee that needed ACL surgery last summer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Kyle D. – Helpful hint from your pals at PHR: Do whatever it takes to keep Hyman in the fold. No other Ontario-born guy on the roster can play a gritty game AND crank out popular kids’ books. AND handle the local media… He’s a Unicorn…
I hope so too but my fear is Zach turns into a Daren Helm/Justin Abdelkader type a few years down the road
@bigdaddyt – I hope that fear of yours doesn’t pan out, as that would be one less “Don’t Put it Off, Call Sokoloff” commercial! Not sure that Marner has the same “Wow” factor there… ;) Seriously, nobody ever hopes for those eventualities, but they do happen. Maybe he’ll be able to stay fairly healthy for his stay in the G.T.A.
I would say it’s unlikely simply because part of the reason those guys dropped significantly was the amount of talent they were surrounded by was severely depleted. Hard working banger types need talent around them.
I’m not sure I would go past three years for Hyman but don’t have much concern as long as most of the core is still intact that he can be productive for a number of more years.
Problem is just because you wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean a gm wouldnt. I could see him getting 5×5 pretty easy based off the past 2 years. He was on pace for 30 goals if he didn’t miss time from major knee injury this year
I never said someone wouldn’t and if someone does do 5*5 good on Hyman but the leafs certainly will be out at that price and term.
With all respect to Leafs , if Dubas didn’t open teams wallet with recent contracts to Marner, and Nylander , albeit great talents, and the signings of some of recent acquisitions on Defense and those contracts , Hyman is a core power forward in line with what Abdelkader and Helm has in past been to Red Wings as stated by bigdaddyt, hope Leafs are able to finagle current payroll to keep Hyman in Toronto for few years to come as love watching him , grind it out with leagues top players and a physical presence on defense from a forward with scoring ability in front of the net.
and to add they may look into unloading Kapanen or Johnsson or both possibly, if healthy come next season , just to have a little leverage to make other moves as heard on other stories have read here and elsewhere.