Spencer Hyman (left) of the Markham Royals is the youngest coach in the Ontario Junior Hockey League, working alongside Mark Galati (right). (Nick Dotto/Markham Royals)

Spencer Hyman would eventually love to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Zach and make it to the National Hockey League.
But at the moment he’s in no hurry to get there.

Zach Hyman, 24, is still considered a rookie with the Toronto Maple Leafs this season, even though he played 16 games with the NHL franchise a year ago.

As for Spencer Hyman, he abandoned his playing career in 2014. He had spent a year training and practising with the University of Michigan Wolverines, Zach’s alma mater. But a back injury and concussion-related issues prevented him from playing any matches at Michigan.

The younger Hyman then returned home and in order to stay with the game turned to coaching. At the start of the 2014-15 campaign, he became an assistant coach in the Ontario Junior Hockey League with the then Hamilton Red Wings, a franchise owned by his father Stuart.

Later that season he was also named as the club’s assistant general manager.

When the Royals relocated and became the Markham Royals in 2015, Spencer Hyman maintained his assistant coaching and assistant GM duties.

He’s now in his third season of working in the OJHL. And at age 23, he’s the youngest coach in the league.

Eventually – he’s not putting any sort of timetable on it – the younger Hyman would like to be working behind an NHL bench.

“If you ask any coach, he’d say he wants to coach in the NHL,” he said.

But if that were to indeed happen for him, it would probably be a long, long way down the road. For now, Hyman is rather comfortable working alongside Mike Galati, the Royals’ head coach/GM.

“I’m learning a lot from Mike,” he said. “And I’m not ready to become a head coach myself.”

And Hyman has no desire to join another organization any time soon – just to prove to others that he is not simply coaching at this level now because his father owns the squad.

“For me, I couldn’t care about what anybody has to say about me coaching my father’s team,” he said.

Besides his OJHL coaching/managerial responsibilities with the Royals, Hyman also has plenty of other things going on in his life at the moment.

He’s still a university student. He’s in his final semester of his Sports Media classes at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Hyman is also helping a relative manage some properties. And he’s in the process of obtaining his real estate license as well.

Even though he’s a coach, one thing he doesn’t do is try to give tips to his brother Zach, who has earned 18 points through 39 games with the Maple Leafs this season.

“We talk every day and we talk about hockey,” Spencer Hyman said. “He’s always asking me how the Royals are doing. If anything, he’s helping me more than me helping him.”