Oilers’ Zach Hyman will be out until early November

It looks like the Edmonton Oilers will be without one of their top scorers for the first part of the 2025-26 NHL season.

On Thursday, with the team taking the ice for the first time together at training camp, head coach Kris Knoblauch shared that Zach Hyman will be out until early November.

Hyman last played with the Oilers in the Conference Finals back in May against the Dallas Stars. He exited in Game 4 of that series after taking an awkward hit from Mason Marchment and did not return as the Oilers faced the Florida Panthers once again in the Stanley Cup Final.

It was later confirmed that Hyman suffered a dislocated wrist and torn ligaments from the Marchment hit, for which he underwent surgery early in the summer. A few weeks ago, the Toronto native shared that he was progressing well, but might not be ready for opening night on October 8th.

“(I) have one more meeting with the surgeon to wrap it up, which is great,” Hyman said, speaking at the Team Canada Olympic orientation camp in August. “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.’”

Now we have confirmation that, unfortunately, Hyman will not be on the roster until at least November.

Hyman suffered a down year last season, with just 27 goals and 44 points through 73 games. He picked things up a bit in the playoffs, registering five goals and 11 points through 15 games. Once he’s back from injury, the 33-year-old is hoping his stats will look more like what he accomplished two years ago, when he put up 54 goals and added 16 more in the postseason.

While it’s frustrating to be without such a key player to start the year, it is no doubt the right decision to keep Hyman out until he is 100 percent ready to return to play. The last thing you want to see is for him to be rushed back, only to have to exit again and miss more time. In the meantime, the Oilers are hardly lacking in offensive talent to rely on, between their cemented stars and up-and-coming prospects looking to make a dent this season.