Oilers could be without Zach Hyman to start 2025-26 season

The Edmonton Oilers could be starting the season down a man as forward Zach Hyman revealed he may not be ready for opening night.

Hyman was forced out of the playoffs last spring after dislocating his wrist in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars when he took an awkward hit from Mason Marchment.

He underwent wrist surgery to fix the injury, and now tells NHL.com he hopes can be ready for opening night on October 8th when the Oilers host the Calgary Flames.

“(I) have one more meeting with the surgeon to wrap it up, which is great,” Hyman said at the Team Canada Olympic orientation camp this week.. “Will I be ready for the start of the season? I don’t know. But I’m on the right track, which is good. The fact that I don’t know is a good thing because it could be, ‘No, I’m not.’”

Hyman was open after the injury, talking about how difficult the injury was for him to process, but the winger — who isn’t a stranger to major injury, suffering a torn ACL early in the 2019-20 season — said this one has been different.

“The knee is different because you can’t skate,” Hyman said. “I’m skating. This is my top hand. I’m doing all the things I normally do but I’m being cautious with my bottom hand.”

It was a bit of a down year for Hyman last season, who scored 27 goals and 44 points in 73 regular season games, a noticeable dip from the 54 goals and 77 points in had in 2023-24’s 80 games. But Hyman ramped his game up in the post-season, scoring five goals and 11 points in 15 games before being injured, as well as laying a staggering 111 hits — a number that paced him to smash the all-time single-playoff record for hits.

Hyman told Oilers TV’s Paige Martin last week that after his surgery, he wore a cast for two months, but has since worn a brace.

“I’m almost out of it which is nice, and can get back to some normalcy soon,” he said, adding he’s had a busy summer that included travel to France for teammate Leon Draisaitl’s wedding.

“Going the distance that we went, summer is very condensed,” he said. “Lots of weddings. Time of my life right now when you’re in your 30s, a lot of people are getting married and obviously Leon being one. So that was a really great wedding to see a bunch of the guys in a great destination… I’ve got my brother’s wedding coming up on Sunday, so I’ll fly back for that and then I’ll come back out to Edmonton.”