Edmonton Oilers fans can breathe a sigh of relief — Leon Draisaitl has essentially committed the rest of his career to the organization.
The two parties agreed to an eight-year deal worth $112 million, or $14 million annually on Tuesday morning. Unless he’s traded or bought out, Draisaitl will remain an Oiler until he’s 39 years old.
However, at 28 years old, the German centre is still in his prime. Let’s take a look at his career with the Edmonton Oilers thus far.

Thrown into the deep end as a rookie

The Oilers had some rough drafts from 2010 to 2012 despite picking first overall in all three years. Thanks to a lockout during the 2012-13 season, the Oilers picked seventh overall and picked up Darnell Nurse. However, the best player from those five drafts is Leon Draisaitl, who the Oilers picked at third overall in 2014.
Draisaitl made his National Hockey League debut in 2014-15 with the Oilers, scoring just two goals and nine points in 37 games as the Oilers frustratingly burnt a season off his entry-level contract. Eventually, he was sent down to the Western Hockey League to play with the Kelowna Rockets, scoring 19 goals and 53 points in 32 games.
In the 2015 WHL postseason, Draisaitl scored ten goals and 28 points, leading the team in the latter category en route to an Ed Chynoweth Cup. Draisaitl led the 2015 Memorial Cup with four goals and seven points, but the WHL team lost early in overtime to the Oshawa Generals. We’ll talk more about Draisaitl and the postseason later in the article.
Draisaitl briefly started the 2015-16 in the American Hockey League, scoring a goal and two points in six games before a call-up to the new and improved Edmonton Oilers that featured recently drafted Connor McDavid.
Of course, all eyes were on McDavid in his rookie season, but Draisaitl showed significant improvement in his second stint in the National Hockey League, scoring 19 goals and 51 points in 72 games mainly playing beside Taylor Hall. He never returned to the American Hockey League in any capacity.

The development years

Draisaitl’s sophomore season was a good one, but he took another leap in 2016-17, as he finished with what was then a career-high 29 goals and 77 points. More often than not, Draisaitl played alongside McDavid during five-on-five play that season with 676:54 minutes with the greatest player of all time as opposed to 500:40 away from him. This was a big factor in Draisaitl’s development into one of the best players in the league.
In the first-round matchup against the San Jose Sharks, Draisaitl and McDavid played together often, but that changed in their second-round matchup against the Anaheim Ducks. With Ryan Kessler hooking McDavid and being a general nuisance all series, Draisaitl became the de facto second-line centre and flourished.
Together during five-on-five play, they played 50 minutes together while scoring four goals and allowing three while on the ice. Without McDavid though, Draisaitl played 61:19 minutes during five-on-five, with the team scoring four goals and allowing two against. It was a sign of things to come when the Oilers consistently got out of the first round of the players.
Other than the first two seasons he played, the only season where Draisaitl didn’t finish as a point-per-game player was in the 2017-18 season, when he scored 25 goals and 70 points in 78 games. Three games into the season, Draisaitl received a dirt hit from Jacob Trouba (what’s new?) and missed four games with “concussion like symptoms”. Whether or not this impacted his season is unknown, but the Oilers’ play regressed as the missed the postseason.
In 2018-19, Leon Draisaitl often played with McDavid, as the pair played 805:37 minutes together during five-on-five action while Draisaitl played 572:19 minutes away from McDavid. Regardless, Draisaitl quickly became one of the best hockey players in the world this season, scoring 50 goals and 105 points in 82 games. Once again, Edmonton missed the playoffs, but Draisaitl was a star by this point.

Becoming one of the best in the game

A common talking point around this time is that while Draisaitl was a good player, he wasn’t a star player because he constantly had Connor McDavid feeding him the puck. While that isn’t the whole truth, there is some credence to that argument as the pair often played together. That changed in 2019-20 though.
On December 28, 2019, the pair had played 516:34 minutes together with a 48.48% goal share and a 45.9% expected goal share during five-on-five play. Draisaitl fared worse alone, playing 148:52 minutes without McDavid, being outscored 10-4 for a 28.57% goal share.
The following day, the Oilers called up their 2017 first-round pick, Kailer Yamamoto, and played him alongside Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. From December 29 until the COVID pandemic ended the regular season, Draisaitl played 461:31 minutes away from McDavid, with his line scoring 31 goals to the opposition’s 16 for a 65.96% goal share during five-on-five play.
In early February, about a month before the global shutdown, McDavid injured his quad and missed six games. Draisaitl cooked, as the kids say, in those six games, scoring four goals and 12 points. See what happens when the team plays Draisaitl with actual top-six wingers?
Edmonton’s last game was on Mar. 11, with Draisaitl finishing the year with 43 goals and 110 points in 71 games. Side note here, the Oilers were scheduled to play the Ottawa Senators in the Nation’s Capital the following week. I had tickets for that game, but I wasn’t able to attend an Oiler game until late March of this year. Really annoying.
Draisaitl won numerous awards after the 2019-20 season, picking up the Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, and Ted Lindsay Award. However, the Oilers fell in four games to the Chicago Blackhawks in the qualifying round in the bubble, technically missing the postseason for the third straight year. It wasn’t on Draisaitl though, as he scored three goals and six points in his return to the postseason.
There’s only been one season since 2017-18 where Draisaitl hasn’t finished with 100 or more points and 40 or more goals in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season in the all-Canadian Division. Still, he scored an incredible 31 goals and 84 points in 56 games. On a rate basis, he was on pace for 45 goals and 123 points, with McDavid actually reaching the 100-point plateau in what was an incredible season.
The Oilers lost in four games to the Winnipeg Jets in close games, actually suffering a sweep in the 2021 postseason. Once again, Draisaitl was solid, scoring two goals and five points in the sweep.

Leon Draisaitl, the postseason performer

The Oilers returned to contention in 2019-20 and 2020-21, but they were far from contenders as those were rather weak teams. However, the Oilers finally became a team to be reckoned with in 2021-22, as they made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals… where they were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Colorado Avalanche.
It was a great year for Draisaitl, as he finished with a career-best 55 goals and 110 points, but was overshadowed as Auston Matthews scored 60 goals. It was the first time in a decade that a player hit the 60-goal plateau. Despite a high-ankle sprain suffered in the first round, Draisaitl finished the postseason with seven goals and 32 points in 16 games played. Incredible.
Draisaitl’s career year came in 2022-23, scoring 52 goals (the third time he hit 50 goals) along with 128 points, finishing second in points and fourth in goals. Oh, McDavid also scored an insane 156 points and 64 goals. It was Draisaitl who dominated in the postseason, scoring 13 goals and 18 points in only 12 postseason games. He wasn’t just a point-per-game in the postseason, he was a goal per game!
Unfortunately, a common trend emerged as the Oilers lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights, in the second round.
Last season was a down year for Draisaitl, finishing with 41 goals and 106 points. For most players, they aren’t hitting either of those markers in one season in their career, much less it being a down year. However, Draisaitl wasn’t his usual self in an unusual season for the Oilers.
After a terrible start to their season and a near record-breaking 16-game winning streak, the Oilers found themselves in the postseason. They defeated the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for the third consecutive year, outlasted the Vancouver Canucks in the second round, and defeated the Dallas Stars in the third round. At this point in his postseason career, Draisaitl had 41 goals and 105 points in 67 postseason games, an incredible point-per-game pace.
However, the Oilers went down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers, fighting back to force a Game 7, only to lose 2-1 in a low-scoring affair. In the three games the Oilers won, they scored 18 goals, with Draisaitl picking up three assists.
Whether it was due to injury/fatigue or Sergei Bobrovsky knowing the power play one-timer was coming, Draisaitl was shut down pretty effectively for the first time in his postseason career.
Edmonton Oilers Leon Draisaitl
Jun 21, 2024; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl (29) during the warmup period against the Florida Panthers in game six of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place.

What’s next?

For the next nine years, barring a trade or buyout, Leon Draisaitl will be an Edmonton Oiler. Throughout his tenure with the team, he hasn’t had a whole lot of fire support on the wing when filling in as the team’s second-line centre.
Aside from playing with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman on the first line, Draisaitl’s most common linemates were Warren Foegele and Evander Kane in 2023-24. Foegele, who scored a career-high 20 goals and 41 points, isn’t a second-line winger, while Kane was dealing with injuries all season.
The fact is, aside from a few months in 2019-20 when Kailer Yamamoto caught fire, Draisaitl hasn’t played with two bonafide top-six wingers in his career. That will change in 2024-25 though, as the Oilers signed Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson early in free agency.
Arvidsson, a right-winger, spent most of the 2023-24 season injured with the Los Angeles Kings, but scored six goals and 15 points in 18 regular season games. He’s a season removed from a 26-goal season with 59 points, and has hit the 30-goal plateau twice in his career.
Skinner, a left-winger who has never played in a postseason game in his career, scored 24 goals and 46 points in 74 games with the Buffalo Sabres last season. However, he scored 33 goals in 2021-22 and 35 goals (and a career-best 82 points) in 2022-23. Moreover, Skinner has hit the 40-goal plateau once in his career in 2018-19.
Arvidsson has a track record of injury proneness, but if he can remain healthy, this is by far the best a Draisaitl-led line has looked at in his career. What’s next? Well, the sky really is the limit.
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