Leon Draisaitl has officially been ruled out for tonight’s game against the San Jose Sharks.

The Edmonton Oilers’ second-leading scorer, and the NHL’s fourth overall point earner, exited Sunday’s game against the Nashville Predators with a lower-body injury. Coach Kris Knoblauch said there will be a clearer timeline soon on his further availability.

“We’ll have some more information probably later tonight, if not tomorrow, exactly how long he’ll be. But he’s not playing,” said Knoblauch after an optional morning skate Tuesday.

Despite playing just over three minutes against the Preds, Draisaitl extended his point streak to nine games. He has 35 goals and 97 points this season. It’s expected that Max Jones will return to the lineup and play on the fourth line.

According to Jack Michaels, the Oilers are 7-6-1 with Draisaitl out of the lineup in the past two seasons. He missed three games in January due to a family matter in Germany, and the Oilers went 2-1 in that stretch.

“We’ll definitely need centres to work in and out. Nuge is definitely a guy that can do that, but we feel Samanski can play some centre. He’s been doing a great job of that. His role will get a little bit bigger right now. We have a lot of options, but right now we’ll keep our centremen as McDavid, Dickinson, Samanski, and Henrique,” said Knoblauch.

Vasily Podkolzin got an opportunity to play the right flank on the first power play unit in Draisaitl’s absence. Knoblauch wouldn’t confirm whether Podkolzin would remain there in tonight’s game.

“We’re gonna play around with it. I think the importance of winning that faceoff is part of it, but having the best five guys, and who’s going to work together? I think that we have a lot of good power-play guys that can play it. But it’s just who’s going to work well and move and read the play, to know what McDavid’s doing, and Bouchard and Hyman at the net,” he said.

Injured blueliner Ty Emberson was on the ice this morning, but it’s looking like Spencer Stastney will stay in the lineup in his spot. If so, it would be the fourth game in a row for Stastney.

Connor Ingram will start again for the Oilers. He’s 3-0-1 in his last five starts.

Edmonton has been finding a defensive posture lately, as two points in the standings tonight against a San Jose Sharks team will give them seven points of cushion between them.

“Our mindset is checking. It’s going to be, and that’s what it has to be anyway, but especially with Leo out. It’s just going to be checking our way to wins, checking our way to chances,” said Nugent-Hopkins.