Zach Hyman was likely robbed of his only Olympic shot

Playing the best hockey of his career, pretty much everything was going right for Zach Hyman this season. It's hard to imagine the stars will align like this again for the 29-year-old winger.

Video Transcript

KYLE CANTLON: I think it's guys, you know, those kind of fringe superstars, the kind of right place, right time guys, you know, like Andrew Mangiapane, Zach Hyman, like, those kind of guys.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Man.

KYLE CANTLON: I'm not sure how close you were--

OMAR: Yeah.

KYLE CANTLON: To getting to the point where those guys were both [INAUDIBLE] for this team. But I mean, I think we're getting pretty close. And I mean, Hyman especially was-- I think he was probably right there. Mangiapane, he'll still be under 30 the next time the Olympics roll around. He's only 25 right now. So I mean, depending how his trajectory goes and how he pans out, he might still have a chance the next time around.

But I mean, for Zach Hyman, you really got to feel for him. He's 29 now. He'll be 33, 34 the next time they roll around. And I mean, he's just-- everything's going right for him right now in the middle of a career season. He's playing absolute lights-out with Connor McDavid at even strength on the power play.

He's almost like Chris Kunitz-- or Sidney Crosby, [? Chris ?] Kunitz but who could actually-- who could actually play a little bit. So it's not like even McDavid would have just been dragging him there because they wanted him there. I mean, he was earning a spot on that team playing alongside McDavid. And it's a guy like that that I really, really feel for.