Zach Hyman will be there gunning for the Edmonton Oilers when the Stanley Cup Finals start on June 4. “I can’t wait to support the boys in every way I can!” The bad news, which most of you already know, is that the winger won’t be able to join his Oilers teammates when they go to war against the Florida Panthers. An injury in the Western Conference Finals (WCF), the subsequent surgery on May 28, and that means Paul Maurice will have one less problem to deal with.

How important is the Oilers forward? Well, he had played all 15 of the playoff games in 2025 before getting the upper-body injury. And in those 15 games, he had 5 goals and 6 assists with a rating of +10, joint 4th-highest on the team. But the thing that sets Hyman apart is his physicality. With 111 hits, he leads the playoffs tally, way ahead of Panthers forward Sam Bennett, who has 85. No doubt, Zach Hyman will be missed. But ask the Panthers coach, and he is rather focusing on the bigger picture. How so? Just see what the veteran coach had to say about the 2 finalists.

Paul Maurice was doing the practice interviews on June 2 when he was asked how things change from his perspective, facing an Oilers team that won’t have Zach Hyman. The veteran coach straight away changed the focus to the 2 other huge threats that the Panthers still have to deal with. “Their two elite offensive players are, you know, by an order of magnitude more offensively elite than most players in this league. So that makes them different … Well, they’re an exceptionally special offensive team with those two players.”

He’s obviously talking about Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. McDavid has 26 points in the playoffs, while Draisaitl has 25. In comparison, the closest to them is the Panthers captain, Aleksander Barkov, with 17. McDavid and Draisaitl are in a league of their own, and while they are on the ice, the Oilers are a serious threat. And Paul Maurice even talked about the roster in general. “And then, I think both teams just got deeper … Both teams got better at what wasn’t necessarily their primary thing.”

Explaining himself, the 58-year-old coach continued, “They’re a real strong offensive team, but they’re a much better defensive team than they were. And we’ve always been a pretty strong defensive team. We’ve got a Selke award winner in our middle there. And then we like to think we’ve improved our offensive game, especially in the back half of these playoffs.”

Well, for the Oilers, it’s amazing that newcomer Jake Walman has a rating of +12, the best in the squad, while midseason signing John Klingberg has played 15 of the 16 playoff games and has a rating of +6. Both defensemen had given the Oilers solidity while McDavid and Draisaitl had gone about their business. And Maurice is right about his team, too. The Brad Marchand signing has been inspired. The veteran forward has only reinforced the Panthers’ elite winning culture that everyone’s been talking about.

The Panthers look like a much more polished side, and Brad Marchand seems perfectly at home in Florida, despite having spent 18 years with the Boston Bruins. Both teams have strengthened – the Panthers with Seth Jones and Nate Schmidt, while the Oilers have added Trent Frederic, Vasily Podkolzin, and a few other names who have contributed heavily to the 2025 playoffs.

Paul Maurice’s entire premise is that both squads have many names who have come together to bring the teams to the Stanley Cup Finals. So, maybe focusing on Zach Hyman would be a distraction. In fact, even the Oilers contingent is saying they have the depth to deal with the Hyman setback.

The Oilers back their squad depth to deal with the Zach Hyman issue

Evander Kane sent out an adamant message on June 2 when talking about the Zach Hyman issue. “We did a great job in Game 5 against Dallas (without him). We have a lot more depth throughout the entirety of our lineup. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to use that depth and get the job done without him.”

Kane isn’t wrong. In the absence of Hyman, newcomer Vasily Podkolzin stepped up with 8 hits in Game 4 of the WCF after the 33-year-old winger went off injured. And free agent signing Jeff Skinner chipped in with a goal in Game 5. The depth is showing, no doubt.

Veteran Corey Perry, talking about the Hyman conundrum, said this after the WCF, “There’s things he (Hyman) does in the lineup that can’t be replaced, but there are certainly guys that can come in and help fill that void.” And guess what, head coach Kris Knoblauch is also humming the same tune: “I can tell you, that Edmonton team is better than the team we played last year … Deeper, defends harder, harder to play against.”

Well, that would be good news for the Oilers nation. Because they don’t want to go home without the Stanley Cup 2 years in a row, that too against the same team.