‘We’re going to need other guys to step up’: Oilers will look to embrace next man up mentality without Zach Hyman

Devastating news for the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday as word broke that Zach Hyman would need surgery on his wrist and would miss the remainder of the playoffs.

It happened when he got clipped by Mason Marchment in the first period of Game 4, seeing Hyman drop his stick to the ice and immediately race towards the tunnel. The immediate feeling wasn’t good, and that only amplified with him being ruled out in the first intermission. Never a good sign.

Dealing with injuries isn’t anything new for this team this season. Evander Kane spent the entire regular season on the shelf, and down the stretch run of the regular season, there were games where it felt like the Oilers had more injured players than healthy ones.

Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Mattias Ekholm, Stuart Skinner, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Trent Frederic and John Klingberg all missed time due to various ailments.

So the Oilers know what it takes to step up when key players are missing, and it’s something they’re going to need to rely on through the rest of their playoff run.

But make no mistake — Hyman is a player who is almost irreplaceable.

“He’s put everything out there, you look at what he’s done the last two years in the playoffs,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch Wednesday morning. “Last year, throughout the season, he scored 70 goals and numerous big, important goals in the playoffs.

“This year, scoring key goals, but the physical department, how many hits he had and his two-way play was tremendous. Now that we’re going to be missing him, we’re going to need other guys to step up.”

The physicality is one area they will miss Hyman. He laid 109 hits in his first 14 playoff games, laying an additional two in Game 4 before the injury, bringing his total on the postseason 15 short of breaking Blake Coleman’s record of 126 hits he laid in 25 games in the 2019-20 playoffs. Had Hyman not been hurt, that record likely would’ve fallen sometime in Game 5 against the Stars.

Vasily Podkolzin started to fill that void Tuesday, laying eight hits, tying his playoff high, while the likes of Kasperi Kapanen (seven), Trent Frederic (six) and Kane (five) all got in on the action. These players, specifically, are going to need to ramp that physicality up even more, as the team’s heavy game has worn on opposing teams all playoffs long.

Other players are going to need to find ways to contribute, too.

“My time here, we’ve been pretty fortunate with injuries — especially last year,” said Knoblauch Wednesday. “Last year we had hardly anything, then this year, for the first three-quarters of the season, it was minimal time off for guys, then it really piled up at the end of the season with numerous guys, key guys. McDavid, Draisaitl, Ekholm, just to name a few.

“Now, playoffs, there’s going to be times where guys are banged up and that’s part of the game. Right now, we’re missing some guys. Missing Zach is going to be a huge hole, but we’re fortunate to have a lot of depth. Guys can step up and give us quality minutes.”

Roster construction choices will need to be made, too. Does Jeff Skinner return to the lineup? Do the Oilers run 11 forwards and seven defencemen with Mattias Ekholm returning? Does Noah Philp slide in to help the Oilers in the faceoff department? All valid options.

Either way, the next man up mentality will come to the forefront for a team that already had to deal with such adversity

No matter which route the coaching staff goes, the Oilers have found another thing to motivate them to hoist Lord Stanley’s Mug: winning it for Hyman.