Oilers forward Zach Hyman takes shot at Maple Leafs culture

Yesterday, a number of Oilers and other NHLers took part in the fifth annual Hyman Family Foundation golf tournament in California at Oakdale Golf and Country Club. Almost $500K has been raised for various charities this year through Hyman's foundation, and since the tournament began in 2018, it has raised more than $2M for charities.

In the midst of the tournament, Zach Hyman spoke with the media about the tournament as well as answered some questions about his and the Oilers' off-season. One of those questions was about what interim GM Jeff Jackson has done so far this off-season and the team's ability to bring back a number of players on team-friendly deals.

The winning culture in Edmonton certainly helps when it comes to convincing players to take less to stay on a winning team and it's something that the Leafs have yet to create. Perhaps Hyman's comment was both meant to celebrate the culture in Edmonton, while pointing out a fatal flaw in the Leafs' money management techniques.

As much as people say players want to play in Toronto, the contracts the Leafs have been forced to give out to retain players or sign new players is ridiculous compared to what the Oilers have done this off-season. Jeff Skinner, for instance, turned down a contract with the Leafs to join the Oilers on a 1-year, $3M deal and a number of their bottom-six forwards re-signed for significantly less than what they could have gotten, such as Mattias Janmark who signed for 3 years with a $1.45M cap hit - just $100K more than the Leafs are paying Ryan Reaves.

It's not just the role players on the Oilers that took less money however, as Leon Draisaitl's $8.5M cap hit had been viewed as a steal the day he signed the deal, and Connor McDavid could have taken more than his annual $12.5M salary as well, opting to take less than what was offered to him.

While both stars are going to get paid on their next deals, the Oilers should not have anywhere near as difficult of a time getting them to take some sort of discount as the Leafs have had with Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner - though it should be mentioned that Matthews did settle for just a $1.6M raise on his new deal.

Source: TSN
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