The Edmonton Oilers will likely be down one of their most productive players for the rest of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said Wednesday that forward Zach Hyman requires surgery following the upper-body injury that knocked him out of Edmonton’s Game 4 win over the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference finals.
He’s is not expected to be able to play for the remainder of the postseason.
The workhorse winger for the Edmonton Oilers by a wide margin led the NHL with 109 playoff hits entering Tuesday night.
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Hyman found himself on the receiving end early in Game 4 and it didn’t look good.
Hyman left midway through the first period of Edmonton’s 4-1 victory that gave the Oilers a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series after taking a glancing hit from Stars winger Mason Marchment coming out of the defensive zone.
He dropped his stick, clearly favoring his right arm, and made a beeline for the bench before heading to Edmonton’s locker room with the team’s medical staff.
Knoblauch distributed Hyman’s minutes among his forward depth, with both Trent Frederic and Corey Perry seeing time on captain Connor McDavid’s wing through two periods.
Edmonton’s bench boss then leaned heavily on Leon Draisaitl in the third by double-shifting the big center as Edmonton squeezed the life out of Dallas.
“You’re not just going to make that up,” Draisaitl, who had a goal and an assist, said of Hyman’s absence. “But collectively, I think we have what it takes to make up for it.”
Hyman started the night with 27 more postseason hits than Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett to go along with five goals and six assists.
“It’s a big loss,” said Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who had another two assists to give him nine points in the series. “He’s a big part of our team, on and off the ice, the way he does things. You’ve seen his physicality.
“It’s important to our game, but other guys have already stepped up and tried to fill that gap.”
Edmonton, which has weathered the storm on the back end in these playoffs with the soon-to-be-healthy blue liner Mattias Ekholm sidelined, was already dealing with one injury up front after Connor Brown took a huge hit in Sunday’s 6-1 victory in Game 3.
The Oilers could elect to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in Game 5 on Thursday night if their two injured wingers can’t go and Ekholm is ready.
The Associated Press contributed to this post.
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