Illness forces Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman to miss Tuesday game against Golden Knights

Zach Hyman was a late scratch from the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday night, as the winger came down with an illness.

The club announced he wouldn’t draw in for the game 30 minutes before puck drop when players from both the Oilers and Golden Knights took to the ice at Rogers Place.

The 31-year-old winger is in the midst of another very productive season for the Oilers, scoring 12 goals and 22 points in the team’s first 20 games. He’s built off a career year in 2022-23, when he achieved career highs in goals (36), assists (47), and points, with 83. Fifteen of those markers came on the powerplay, where he established himself as a tenacious threat down low in front of the net.

Now in his third year of a seven-year contract signed when he hit free agency in 2021, Hyman has been nothing short of worth every dollar of the $5.5 million the Oilers gave him.

With Hyman out of the lineup, the Oilers promoted Mattias Janmark to the top line, skating alongside Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Meanwhile, Sam Gagner entered the game on the Oilers’ fourth line after being a healthy scratch for the last four.

And Gagner made the most of it, scoring 13:29 into the first period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.