Monday Mailbag – Does Leon Draisaitl get enough love?

A new week means a brand new Mailbag is here to help you get your Monday started and also to make sense of everything that’s going on with our beloved Edmonton Oilers. This week, we’re talking about Leon Draisaitl being underrated outside of Edmonton, the new guys through 17 games, and more. If you’ve got got a question you’d like to ask, email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk and I’ll get to you as soon as we can.

The Oilers team defence hasn’t been consistent enough. They have gifted too many goals. The past two games have been better, but they need to improve as a group.

Not a great time to evaluate that with Nurse out, but Evan Bouchard impressed me against Chicago even with the one costly turnover and we got a look at Broberg, who didn’t appear overwhelmed. Good start for the blueline as a whole, but a long way to go.

I think I feel the same. Derek Ryan has been fine when healthy, Warren Foegele has been really good, and Zach Hyman has been a dream fit. On the blue line, Cody Ceci has been better than expected while Duncan Keith has been average at best. So I don’t think my opinion has changed at all. He improved the forward group this summer but the defence didn’t improve enough considering how much money/assets he spent.

Without question there is more depth scoring on this team and that’s good news. The defence, however, can still be spotty at times so I’d love to see Holland figure out a way to pick up another 2LD to push everyone down a bit.

Yes. Too many think he benefits solely from playing with McDavid. It is such an inane statement considering others play with McDavid and don’t come close to the production Draisaitl has. The other factor is how well he plays away from McDavid, and that Draisaitl kills penalties and takes key faceoffs. I’d argue his overall game is better than McDavid’s right now.

Not by anybody with even a faint hint of a clue. Fans around the NHL have seen Draisaitl play at this level for years now, not just weeks or months.

Absolutely. I think a lot of die-hard NHL fans know how great he is, but I think a lot of casual fans and media who don’t watch the Oilers play at all just look at him and go “Oh well, he’s only good because he plays with McDavid,” which is insane because he has an MVP trophy. Maybe a second Hart Trophy will lead to him getting more respect.

Yes. He absolutely is underrated everywhere outside of Edmonton, in my opinion.

No. D-men don’t like rotating seven as there isn’t much continuity. Not sure why a seventh D-man, who can’t crack your top six, will make the team better defensively on a nightly basis.

No. And especially not right now with Nurse out.

That’s a really interesting idea and I haven’t really considered it before. It might not be a bad idea but Dave Tippett doesn’t really strike me as a coach that would do that. The idea of giving McDavid and Draisaitl extra shifts and also having an extra defenseman on the bench doesn’t sound like it’d hurt their chances of winning.

As much as I love to watch those two guys do their thing, they’re already playing 1/3 of the game and I don’t know that it would be a great idea, in the long run, to have them out there too much.

McDavid and Draisaitl are used to playing big minutes. They can handle it just fine. Fatigue isn’t a factor. I don’t see them being overplayed. RNH, they might want to reduce his TOI a bit, but he is on the PK, so it is difficult to do.

Saw a lot of life from the third line against Chicago. It’s nothing but a positive to have the bottom six forwards contributing or consistently holding their own at the very least. Having the luxury of giving top players a chance to cut back minutes without hurting results is a big plus. We’re seeing some of that early this season.

Right now, that makes sense. However, when you’re in the heat of a game it’s hard to say, “Well, let’s sit back and play our bottom six more here.” Points in November matter just as much as points in March or April. I understand wanting to get everyone going, but you still have to do everything you can to win every game and for the Oilers, their best chance to win is when their big three plays a lot.

Connor and Leon are actually playing fewer minutes than they have in the past and I think that’s because there is more depth up front than we’ve had in a long time. Take Saturday night against the Hawks for example: I thought the third line had its best game in a while and was rewarded with more minutes, which is exactly what we need to happen if this team is going to take a step forward.

Skinner wanted #74. His oldest brother was 71, next oldest 72, next 73 and Skinner is the youngest of the boys so he picked #74. Teams let players choose the number they want once they are established NHL players. It would be odd to tell Zach Hyman he can’t wear 18, because James Neal wore it last season. I see this is a non-issue.

“Too often” with this team? Is there a set of standards for the appropriate number of times a number is worn, when it’s worn and who wears it? I keed. The Oilers have had 29 different players wear No. 15 and 28 players wear No. 20. I don’t know why. A dozen guys have worn “unlucky” 13. My guess is there are as many reasons for picking any given number as there are numbers. With Skinner, No. 74 is something based on numbers he and his brothers had as kids.

It’s just a coincidence. The Oilers aren’t forcing guys to wear similar numbers to save money or anything like that.

Zach actually wrote about this a few days ago, and the number basically comes as a shout out to his brothers.

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