It was a Monday night in midtown Toronto, and hundreds of children had voluntarily returned to school. Claire Sumerlus, head of school at Robbins Hebrew Academy, remembered the feeling in the room when the guest speaker arrived: “The kids were captured by what he said here.”
Zach Hyman was an alumnus of the school, on Bathurst Street, and he was an emerging name with the Maple Leafs. The 24-year-old delivered a motivational speech, and he read from two books.
They were his two books.
His first book, Hockey Hero, tells the story of Tommy Toomay, a freckled eight-year-old who is terrified, as a new player, of being called into the third period of a game. He overcomes his fears and scores the winning goal in magic equipment: Bobby’s Orr’s skates, Maurice Richard’s gloves and Gordie Howe’s “record-breaking stick.”
In the end, his grandfather tells him the equipment wasn’t magic.
“I know, grandpa,” says Tommy, “the magic was in me!”
Back at the school, Sumerlus said she smiled as she looked into the audience, comprised of children who ranged in age from nursery school to Grade 8. Hyman was a star.
“They really felt connected to him,” she said.
“He embodies all of the characteristics of a mensch,” said Reagan Macklin, Director of Strategic Development at RHA.
After a breakout stretch in January, more and more hockey fans are learning about Hyman, a one-time long-shot taken in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He has shown offensive chops, and he can kill penalties. Leafs coach Mike Babcock has described him as “real smart.”
Writing is a sideline now, but for a player who spent six seasons working his way to the NHL — from his draft year through Junior A, college and the AHL — his books are a way to convey his life’s guiding principle.
“I like to have important messages,” he said. “The most important one is to believe in yourself. That’s really important for kids.”
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Stuart Hyman, a real estate developer who became a minor hockey impresario in Toronto, noticed his son’s drive early. Zach was in a tyke tournament at Maple Leaf Gardens, and he told his father: “Dad, one day I’m going to play in the NHL.”
A few years later, at a minor hockey game in Hamilton, Ont., the son met a legend. Zach Hyman met Gordie Howe, and Mr. Hockey asked the boy what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“I want to be a hockey player like you, Mr. Howe,” was the answer.
Howe replied: “100 per cent is all we ask — I’ll see you in the NHL.”
The passion for writing also arrived early. Red Fisher, who won two National Newspaper Awards over a storied career in Montreal, is a cousin. And the origins of Hockey Hero appeared as part of a writing contest when Hyman was at Robbins Hebrew Academy.
It was a short story. Stuart Hyman received a call from an English teacher who was in tears. The story, he said, was why he had become a teacher.
“As diligent as he is in hockey, playing that hard-working, blue-collar style of game on the ice,” said Stuart, “he does the exact same thing in anything he’s passionate about.”
“Writing came before being an NHL player,” said Zach. “They just went hand in hand.”
They self-published Hockey Hero. They were shopping the book to publishers, looking for distribution, when the project landed with freelance editor Janice Weaver.
She worked with Hyman, and eventually, he signed with Tundra Books, Penguin Random House’s division of children’s books. Weaver has worked with Hyman since.
Hyman is mature “beyond his chronological age,” she said, saying she is consistently surprised by how receptive he is to editorial suggestions — a trait that is not exactly universal among writers.
Weaver said Hyman made great strides as a writer in his second book, The Bambino and Me.
“Zach, right from the get go, was really good at not just seeing what I was talking about in one area but seeing other places in the manuscript where he could apply the same suggestion to strengthen the story overall,” she said.
The Bambino and Me shows Hyman’s expanded use of detail, especially when George, the young boy, has to wear a Red Sox hat and jersey to watch Babe Ruth and his beloved Yankees play.
“I stood up and faced her, as mad as a wet hen,” Hyman writes. “Puffing up my chest – feeling more grizzly than a grizzly bear – I screamed, “Ah, applesauce!””
Hyman uses actual quotes from Ruth in the meeting between him and George. But just as in Hockey Hero, the book ends with what has become Hyman’s trademark credo: “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up!”
Hyman earned critical acclaim for the book. It was listed as an honour book in the 2015 Comstock Read Aloud Book Award, sponsored by Minnesota State University Moorhead. (It is awarded to the best picture book of the year to read aloud to older children, aged nine-to-12.)
Dory Cerny, the books for young people editor at Quill & Quire, said the market for children’s books is “still very strong” in Canada, and that it has held off the charge of apps and digital books.
Ruta Liormonas, publicity and sports marketing manager at Penguin Random House Canada, declined to say how many copies Hyman’s books have sold. His ascendance on the ice, though, cannot hurt sales.
“Now that Zach is finishing up a strong rookie year playing for the Leafs I think we’ll see more readers coming to his work,” Liormonas wrote in an email.
Penguin Random House will publish his upcoming book, The Magician’s Secret, in spring 2018.
Hyman is already working on his fourth children’s book, this one with a basketball them. It is scheduled to hit the shelves in 2019.
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Life in the NHL is fluid, and Hyman said he tries to find time to write at home, or in the off-season.
“I don’t set time aside and say ‘I’m going to write now,’” he said. “It’s whenever I feel like I have to write or when I want to get away.”
He has support from Babcock, who encourages players to have a hobby away from the ice. And he has support from Penguin Random House, too.
“A lot depends on the publisher and the strength of the publicity effort,” said Cerny, adding Hyman is “in good hands” with his publishing house.
In the publishing world, it might be more lucrative to venture into non-fiction, perhaps with a tell-all look at the life of an NHL rookie. Hyman, however, enjoys reading his books to kids and according to him, “they’re fun, easy, you don’t have to have any serious conflict in them.”
Hyman admits there are elements of his book that have been influenced by his real life. Given his unexpected rise as one of the Leafs celebrated rookies, he may be laying the foundation for another story down the road.
“It always starts with the lesson,” he said, “for kids to believe in themselves.”