The milestone week for the Oilers continues as Leon Draisaitl is the latest to reach a personal feat.
The @EdmontonOilers Leon Draisaitl plays his 700th career regular season game today in Buffalo.
He leads all players from the 2014 NHL Draft with 825 points.
He has three 50+ goal seasons and four 100+ point seasons.
He is also 2nd in Playoff points over the last 2 Playoffs. pic.twitter.com/FsTvKw7jCf
— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) March 9, 2024
Moments like this put into perspective just how fortunate the Oilers are to have Draisaitl on their side. While there was no doubt Edmonton was able to draft an exceptional player back in 2014, few back then could have ever envisioned the incredible heights he would reach in the time since getting taken third overall.
Draisaitl has been the best player to come out of the 2014 draft and it’s not even close. His 825 career points (338 goals and 427 assists) are well ahead of the players taken that year, with the next closest being David Pastrnak at 708. He has also been a dependable option when the games matter most with the seventh-most playoff points since his debut birth in 2016-17, two ahead of Connor McDavid. And while this current campaign has been seen as a down year compared to last, Draisaitl is still on pace to hit the 40-goal plateau like he has in five of the past six seasons.
Speaking of which, he has played in 61 games this season, scoring 32 goals and 49 assists for 81 points. While there is not a lot of runway left in the regular season, it is not a stretch to suggest he could pass the 100-point mark for the fifth time in his career.
This marks the third time in the past few days that an Oilers player achieved a personal milestone. McDavid became the sixth-ever player in the NHL to record a 100-point campaign seven times in his career while Mattias Ekholm played in his 800th career game, both of which took place on Thursday night.
Draistail’s 700th career game took place in Buffalo when the Oilers took on the Sabres for a Saturday morning matinee.
