Zach Hyman is back on the ice, and the Edmonton Oilers may not have to wait much longer to get one of their top scorers into the lineup.
Hyman returned to practice on Friday, putting him on the path to a possible return as soon as Saturday in San Jose. If that doesn’t happen, Tuesday, Oct. 13 against the Los Angeles Kings is the likeliest target.
The Oilers are also still waiting on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who remains on injured reserve. Matt Savoie, Colton Dach, and Mattias Janmark are there too.
Hyman’s value is easy to measure from last season alone. He put up 52 points in 58 games, which ranked fifth on the team. His return comes at a time when Edmonton’s offense is already rolling, with the club averaging 5.50 goals per game, second only to Colorado.
Even with that production, the scoring has been concentrated at the top. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Vasily Podkolzin are all near the top of the NHL scoring race, and those four have accounted for 73% of the Oilers’ goals.
That creates an interesting squeeze for the lineup. Alex Formenton or Isaac Howard appear to be the most likely players on the bubble as Edmonton sorts through its roster once Hyman is ready to play.
For the Oilers, it’s the kind of problem teams want: four of their top nine forwards were out to start the season, and now the group is beginning to get whole again.
At Friday’s practice, the forward combinations looked like this:
Podkolzin-McDavid-Draisaitl
Hallander-Dickinson-Kapanen/Hyman
Formenton-Michaels-Joseph
Frederic/Jones-Samanski-Howard
On the blue line and in goal, the group lined up as:
Ekholm-Bouchard
Shea-Murphy
Walman-Emberson
Mukhamadullin
Jarry
Levi
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