Legacy.

The longer a player lasts in the National Hockey League, the more prominent the question of what their careers will be remembered for. Is it for being a depth player? Will they be remembered for singular moments? Will people look back and call them a bust? Will they be remembered for individual awards, or will they be remembered for being a Stanley Cup champion?

For Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, he hopes it’s the latter.

“I’ve been fortunate to have won some personal trophies, and that’s all nice, and I’m proud of it and all that, but at the end of the day I play a team sport, and I want to be remembered as a Stanley Cup winner,” he told The Athletic’s Chris Johnston during the NHL’s European Player Media Tour.

Draisaitl’s legacy has clearly come front of mind for the superstar, and after getting so close to the Stanley Cup twice, it’s part of what led to the hiring of Mike Babcock. Much of what Draisaitl said to Johnston is nothing new.

“We asked all of the hard questions that media would probably ask him, too.”

“He faced it great.”

“It was pretty clear pretty quick that he could be our guy.”

The stakes are high for the players. Draisaitl is 31. Connor McDavid is 30. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is 33. Zach Hyman is 34. Mattias Ekholm is 36. The core of this team isn’t getting younger, and the pressure to win — and win now — is only growing with each passing season.

But Draisaitl was quick to note the players aren’t the only ones who enter this season with risk.

“I think he’s really eager to prove to people that he’s still a brilliant hockey mind and he still knows how to coach good hockey teams,” said Draisaitl of Babcock. “It’s been a while for him. For us, I think it may be a change in tone, a change in demand a little bit. We’ve had some coaches that are very player-friendly, I would say, and at the time that was needed and that was great for us, but teams go through different phases, right?”

This phase could very well be the defining one for Draisaitl and this era of the organization. The time will come when he, McDavid, et al. will step away from the game of hockey, and right now, a look back at their legacy will be missing what matters, to many, most: a Stanley Cup.

In the two seasons since they made their 2024 run, Draisaitl has realized something has been missing that made that group as successful as it was.

“We just need everybody to fill into some holes,” Draisaitl said. “Just need everybody to find some roles that they take really big pride in, and it’s like ‘This is what I do and I love doing that for this team.’ We all know the top of our board — like we know (Evan Bouchard is) going to run the power play and he’s going to do a good job, we know Connor, I know myself — but it’s a new coach, and there’s going to be lots of opportunity for other guys to leave a mark.

“I think that will create some competition and then hopefully make us a better team.”

Now the pressure is real on this team to get to where they’ve wanted to for the last decade.

Zach Laing is Daily Faceoff Edmonton’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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