How Nugent-Hopkins’ Deal Affects Zach Hyman’s Free Agency Future

The Edmonton Oilers got Ryan-Nugent Hopkins signed to a reasonable $5.125 million contract per season Tuesday. They had to offer up an 8-year term to get the AAV down, but it’s a workable number for the Oilers that brings Nugent-Hopkins to age 36 when the contract is said and done.

An interesting thing is happening in the wake of the Nugent-Hopkins deal. A number of fans and media are now looking at what might happen with Zach Hyman of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Related: Oilers and Nugent-Hopkins Announce 8-Yr Contract Extension

The belief was that Hyman was going to be too rich a contract extension for the Maple Leafs to afford. Thinking he’d easily get $5 – $6 million on the free agent market, that’s not quite as obvious after Nugent-Hopkins got $5.125M. While they are different players, there are also many comparables — roughly same age, similar production, both pegged to be wingers –, thus it makes it easy to see why people might be quick to wonder how the dots connect.

Looking around social media, one of the comments read: “That RNH contract throws a huge wrench in Zach Hyman’s desire to get $5-6m a year.” Others noted that the point production was similar, and Hyman might be worth $500K more than Nugent-Hopkins. The question becomes, at what point can the Maple Leafs get back in the conversation?

Can they? We’ve heard that Hyman wants to stay in Toronto. We’ve also heard there have been no meaningful extension talks. Such was not the case with Nugent-Hopkins, who the Oilers frequently came back to the negotiating table with.

Only the Maple Leafs Can Offer 8 Years

Remember, the Leafs are the only team that can offer Hyman an 8-year deal. That’s the luxury of having a pending UFA player under contract when free agency approaches. At the same time, perhaps Hyman isn’t looking to stretch out his earnings over eight years. It might not be clear what his plan is.

What we can assume, is that Nugent-Hopkins took a bit of a deal to stay in Edmonton. He wanted to be here and he could have gotten more had he looked to teams like Columbus, Seattle or Buffalo. That needs to be taken into consideration before people rush to suggest there’s now a cap on the Hyman extension.

Are the Oilers In on Hyman Too?

The ironic thing here is that the Nuge deal opens up additional room for the Oilers to go out and add one more left-winger. Hyman has apparently been on their radar. If the Oilers were to offer a similar deal, with a big higher an AAV, is that good? Or, is that bad?

If Hyman gets offered more than what Nugent-Hopkins just accepted, what message does that send? Or, did Nugent-Hopkins take the deal knowing he was opening up a window to add a player like Hyman? Those are all interesting questions.

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