‘He’s a guy we rely on to score’: Hyman getting back into groove with hat trick

EDMONTON — Having a healthy Zach Hyman back and finding his game again bodes very well for the Edmonton Oilers.

Hyman scored three goals and Connor McDavid had four primary assists as the Oilers emerged with a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

The veteran forward suffered a wrist injury in Game 4 of the Western Conference final against the Dallas Stars and required surgery that left him out of the lineup for Edmonton’s first 19 games this season.

Hyman was held without a goal in his first six games upon his return, but now has five goals in his last six games and feels like he is starting to get back into the groove.

“I think the hands are good,” said the 33-year-old Toronto native, who registered 54 goals in 2023-2024. “It’s not like I’ve scored a lot of goals this year, I just got back. But I feel good.

“I feel like our line (with McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) is starting to find a groove again, starting to find chemistry. We’ve played together for a long, long time, so when we find a groove and we’re in it and all on the same page, I feel like we’re one of the top lines in the league. It’s fun when it’s going like that.”

It was Hyman’s sixth career regular-season hat trick, moving him into sole possession of seventh in Oilers history.

Captain McDavid said it was nice to see Hyman get the hatty.

“He’s playing well obviously, it was a big night for him, playing well, scoring three,” he said. “It’s great for his confidence, for him to start feeling good, it’s important.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said it was only a matter of time before Hyman started scoring again.

“Zach got off to a slow start last year where he wasn’t putting the puck in, I think it was 11 games before he got a goal,” he said. “This year it was kind of a similar start, not that he ever played badly.

“But coming back from the injury it’s maybe feeling the puck. He’s a guy we rely on to score goals. Connor set him up pretty nicely tonight, but obviously scoring goals is a tough thing to do. But he’s done it pretty regularly.”

It was McDavid’s fifth multi-point game in his last six outings and he has 12 points in his last four games.

“He’s taken his game to another level the last couple of weeks. I don’t have an answer for it, but I know he’s been pretty dialed in,” Knoblaugh said of McDavid, who has 34 points (13 goals, 21 assists) since the beginning of November.

“He knows the season hasn’t gone as well as it should for our team. As our leader and our captain and star player he’s pretty much taken it upon himself to turn this around. He wants to be a difference maker.”

McDavid said having both Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins back from injury to play on his line has been a big factor in his recent point production.

“It’s my job to be an impact player in the game and to help move the needle for us and to generate chances,” he said. “It was a good homestand for our line. It was nice to play with those two, a line that we’re really comfortable with, all three guys are comfortable playing together and it was nice to be back with those two.”

Mattias Ekholm also scored and Leon Draisaitl had a pair of assists for the Oilers (14-11-6), who have won three of their last four and went 3-1-1 on their recent homestand.

“For us to get a few wins here was really important,” said Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, who made 27 saves and has only allowed nine goals in his last six games. “Especially on a homestand, you want to bank as many as you can.”

Edmonton now has an 11-1-3 record when scoring first this season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.