Edmonton Oilers fans who might have been feeling like a kid in a candy story at the prospect of having Zach Hyman return to the lineup on Halloween weekend had the treat turned into a trick Wednesday.
While the 33-year-old forward is available to come off of long-term injured reserve and be activated as of Nov. 1, head coach Kris Knoblauch said he will need at least another week, and considers him week-to-week with a wrist injury that required surgery and forced him to miss the end of last year’s playoff run.
“We said it was, bare minimum, Nov. 1, and it won’t be Nov. 1,” Knoblauch said. “It will be at least a week after that.
“We want him back. I think he looks ready, but obviously we’re looking at long picture and making sure we don’t have any setbacks.”
Hyman was injured in the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars in June, undergoing surgery and rehabilitation over the off-season. While he missed training camp, he has been back skating with the team during practices at Rogers Place.
While he missed the final seven of Edmonton’s 22 playoff games, Hyman still ended up leading the league with 111 hits over the post-season.
That tenacity, combined with the fact he exploded for a career-high 54 goals on the way to Edmonton’s first of back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances one year earlier, and safe to say the Oilers have been missing a big piece of their puzzle on offence.
“You look at most of the games so far this year, goal scoring (has been an issue),” Knoblauch said. “Zach is as good as anyone at scoring goals, so he’d give us some depth there. And also with our team, a little tenacity, a little grit in getting in on the forecheck. It would help with that kind of play.
“I like how a lot of the guys are playing, but any time you add a star-quality player like Zach it would just help the team a lot and move other guys to probably the chairs they should be in.”
What has been going on with the Oilers lineup early on here?
Up to this point, even the Oilers top line has resembled a game of musical chairs, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl starting out the first handful of games together before it became painfully obvious none of the turnstile worth of wingers they test drove playing beside in place of Hyman could stick.
So, they were split up to centre their own lines, but even those have been coming out of a blender, including defensive partners. The top pairing of Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard has been split up over the past two games. And just in case you were wondering about how things have been going for the snakebitten Bouchard, Ekholm scored his first goal of the season playing alongside Jake Walman their last time out.
Not that Hyman’s return will fix all problems, but having a key cog back in place could certainly help the machine run more smoothly.
What does Hyman think about the way things are going?
Being 5-4-2 to start the season, the Oilers haven’t looked anything like the team that reached the Stanley Cup Final each of the past two years.
Unfortunately, they have resembled the team that has also gotten off to similarly mediocre (or worse) starts to each of those seasons.
“I think for whatever reason, our starts haven’t been the greatest, obviously,” Hyman said. “But I do see a lot of positives in our group, a lot of resilience, guys finding their game of late and I think the last week has been really good, even if we haven’t won every game.”
Translation: The team could use him back. He wants to be back. And if they can just hang on, his return could provide a bit of momentum to help them get past this stage where they’ve been flirting with a .500 record from the get go.
“I feel like the new guys are settling in, we’ve had a lot of turnover to our lineup, whether it’s guys leaving or guys being injured,” Hyman said. “So, it’s not easy when you’ve got that much turnover to find your role, your place, where you fit in the lineup.
“So, I think we’ve got a good mould of where everybody fits right now. And I’m excited to come back and join the group and bring some new energy, whenever that is.”
G-MAN’S TAKE: While he hasn’t regained his scoring form from two years ago, Hyman is an integral part of this team. They haven’t been able to replace him with the Rolodex of new faces filing through the top line over the past three weeks. The Oilers are certainly better with him than without him, no question. His addition will give the team a bump. The only question is, will it be soon enough to make a difference before being taken over by the momentum they usually drum up in November?
E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge