In just one week, rosters will be finalized for the 4 Nations Face-Off. The inaugural tournament, scheduled for Feb. 12-20 at TD Garden in Boston and Bell Centre in Montreal, features teams of NHL players representing Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States.
Hockey Canada is scheduled to unveil its roster at 4:30 p.m. MT on Dec. 4, and a few players on the Edmonton Oilers will be watching with great interest.
Centre Connor McDavid is already on Team Canada, having been included among the first six players announced by Hockey Canada in June. Defenceman Evan Bouchard has a very good chance at joining Edmonton’s captain in the Canadian lineup. Goaltender Stuart Skinner has an outside shot at being added to Canada’s roster. And then there’s winger Zach Hyman.
As recently as a month ago, Hyman was seen as a lock for Team Canada. When TSN experts Craig Button and Mike Johnson revealed their picks for the 12 Canadian forwards, they not only included Hyman in the lineup, but they slotted the Oilers winger onto Canada’s top line with McDavid and Mitch Marner.
Well, that was at the end October, and a lot has changed since then. Hyman’s slow start threatening to become a slump has now morphed into a full-on funk at the quarter-point of the season. And to make matters worse, now he’s dealing with an undisclosed injury.
Meanwhile, several forwards with Canadian passports are making big impressions this fall, enough to put someone like Hyman’s spot in jeopardy. Suddenly, he might not be such a slam-dunk pick for Canada’s braintrust of general manager Don Sweeney, associate general manager Jim Nill and head coach Jon Cooper.
Hyman’s Numbers Plummet
Hyman currently has just three goals through 20 games, a CN Tower-level drop-off for the Toronto native, who finished third in the NHL last season with 54 goals.
Coming into 2024-25, Hyman had averaged just a hair under 0.50 goals per game over three seasons with the Oilers. This season he’s averaging only 0.15 goals per game, putting him on pace to score the fewest times since 2016-17, when he had 10 goals in 82 games with the Leafs.
Riding Shotgun with McDavid
Hyman continues to be an effective two-way player. Before becoming a prolific goal scorer the last couple seasons in Edmonton, he was known for impacting the game as much through checking as attacking.
Related: TSN Experts Say Oilers Duo Should Have Spots on Canada’s 4 Nations Roster
But his job at the 4 Nations Face-Off would be to score. Button cited an ability to play with McDavid as a reason for putting Hyman on Canada’s No. 1 line, and it’s fair to wonder whether Hyman even makes Team Canada without McDavid being there. If Sweeney and co. want to add someone to play more of a checking role, they’re likely not looking at Hyman.
Injury May Prove Costly
Hyman seemed to be getting on track when he scored his first three goals of the season over a stretch of four games from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6. But he quickly cooled off again, going his last six games since without scoring.
Misfortune has conspired with an unusually long gap in the schedule to rob Hyman of any opportunity to make a last-minute push for Team Canada. He missed the last two games after colliding with Ottawa Senators defenceman Nick Jensen on Nov. 19, and while he’s expected back for Edmonton’s next contest (Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said on Nov. 21 that Hyman would be out “four to seven days”), that won’t be until Friday (Nov. 30), against the Utah Hockey Club.
Bouchard Making His Case
Meanwhile, Bouchard, who has had an up (and probably more) down start to this season, is doing what he can to shore up his resume: the 25-year-old blueliner has two goals, three assists, a rating of plus-6 and one play-of-the-year candidate in his last three games.
Do Canada’s decision-makers think that Hyman’s recent play is just a blip, or do they think that Father Time is quickly catching up with the 32-year-old? Do they look favourably on someone who has undeniable chemistry with Canada’s superstar centre, or are they concerned by Hyman’s recent injury? Fans won’t have to wait much longer to find out the 23 players who comprise Team Canada for the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off.
