There’s no denying Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard will be a part of the next best-on-best international Canadian team.

Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin, Steven Ellis, and Scott Maxwell each projected the two Edmonton Oilers to be on the 2028 World Cup of Hockey team, but there’s an argument to be made that others could join them.

Zach Hyman is one of them, and it’s not hard to see why. Since joining the Oilers as a free agent in 2021, Hyman has been stapled to McDavid’s wing, and has been a very efficient scorer with 175 goals and 310 points in 366 games. He put up 54 goals in 80 games in 2023-24, and last year, despite missing 24 games to injury, racked up 31 goals in 58 games.

If you isolate the last three seasons, where he’s had 112 goals in 211 games, a 0.53 goal per game pace, there’s only four other players who have scored at such a rate: Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov, and Sam Reinhart.

The big knock on Hyman heading into this year’s Olympics was his lack of games played at the start of the season. He missed the first 19 games of the year recovering from his wrist injury suffered in the 2025 Western Conference final against the Dallas Stars, but everybody seemed to ignore that he scored 10 goals and 22 points in the 22 games leading up to the Canadian roster announcement on New Year’s Eve. McDavid couldn’t get his Chris Kunitz.

Nonetheless, Hyman staying healthy heading into the 2028 World Cup of Hockey will be key, but so too will him remaining an offensive threat alongside McDavid. We all know the hard-nosed, blue-collar style of play Hyman has, and one knock over the next few years could be his age. 34 now, he’ll be 36 in 2028, and Canada had two players older than he in the 4-Nations Face-Off — Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury — and three at the Olympics: Crosby, Brad Marchand and Drew Doughty. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a path for Hyman, but there will be more competition with younger players making a push.

One of those younger players could be his teammate and likely linemate next season in Edmonton, Matt Savoie.

There’s no denying the 22-year-old would be a long-shot for the tournament, but there’s a path to him getting on the roster playing alongside McDavid and Hyman in Edmonton. Coming out of the Olympic break, his average ice time climbed from 13:50 in the first 58 games of the season to 17:03 in the final 24 games of the season. The extra ice time saw a major uptick in his offensive production, too, having nine goals and 18 points in his first 58 games, and nine goals and 19 points in his final 24.

Savoie spent 203 five-on-five minutes alongside McDavid, 63 per cent of his ice time, and they were incredibly effective, controlling 56.4 per cent of the shot attempt share, 53.4 per cent of the expected goal share, and 65 per cent of the goal share. Savoie would spend roughly 57 per cent of his five-on-five ice time with McDavid in the playoffs, though the same on-ice success wasn’t had.

It remains to be seen how Mike Babcock will utilize Savoie, and whether or not he will remain on McDavid’s wing, but the sophomore-to-be could be poised for a big breakout this season if he’s able to secure a spot in the Oilers top-six. He would likely need to emerge into a point-per-game or better player in the next season and a half to make the World Cup of Hockey Canadian roster, but playing alongside McDavid could make that a reality.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

After coming painfully close last year, Tyler Yaremchuk is stepping back onto the tee box for another shot at glory. On July 13th, Tyler’s Ace Race – The Revenge Tour – presented by bet365 returns to Cattail Crossing Golf Club, where Tyler will attempt to hit a hole-in-one over the course of a 24-hour live stream. The entire challenge will be broadcast live on YouTube as Tyler battles fatigue, pressure, and his own golf swing in pursuit of the elusive ace. Don’t miss out, this is going to be quite a show.