Which title does he like better? It's a question Hyman answered on the "NHL @TheRink" podcast Tuesday.
"They both sound good," Hyman said. "It's always fun to be coined as an author."
Make no mistake, that doesn't mean he's quitting his day job any time soon. Hyman is in the prime of his NHL career, playing on a line with center Connor McDavid, a point-per-game player (19 points in 19 games), for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations.
But he does love the fact that through Penguin Random House he has authored three children's books: "The Bambino and Me," "Hockey Hero," and "The Magician's Secret."
"I don't think it was as simple as I want to write children's books, it came through a culmination of things," Hyman said. "I'm the oldest of five boys so being a storyteller was kind of in my nature with the younger ones and helping with bedtime, things like that. And then writing became a passion of mine through grade school.
"I wrote this story in Grade 7 and the teacher said, 'You should put it into competition.' It won an award and she said, 'You should pursue this, you're good at it. Do you like doing it?' I said, 'Yeah, I really like writing, reading.' So, I worked on it throughout high school and then published it, got drafted, it got republished with Penguin Random House and I've now written two more since. It's kind of a snowball effect."
Hyman is hoping the Oilers soon experience a snowball effect of winning. In addition to talking about his passion for writing and being an author, Hyman discussed the up-and-down nature of the Oilers season.
They are 10-9-0 and have been in a win-one, lose-one trend the past six games.
"We're trying to find consistency in our game," he said. "We've had games that have been really good and games that have been not so good. You've got to be able to string games together in this league and figure out your identity, who you are. We're still early in the season and we have to make sure we figure out what makes us successful. I think we've done it at times and as you go on in the year you have to continue to do it over and over again."
Hyman joined the podcast after co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke discussed all the streaks going on in the NHL, including the New Jersey Devils winning 13 straight, and the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues each winning seven in a row.
Rosen and Roarke also talked about underappreciated players, with Roarke taking issue that Rosen had Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews on his list.
The "NHL @TheRink"podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on
NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts
and the NHL app.
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