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Oilers Player Report Card - #29 Leon Draisaitl |
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Leon Draisaitl signed an 8 year 8.5 million dollar deal after the 2016/2017 season ended. Draisaitl, who was 21 at the time had just come off a career high 77 point season and a playoff run where he went 6-10-16 through 13 playoff games. At the time his new contract was at least a couple million dollars higher than what comparable players were being given and the worry was that Draisaitl had peaked offensively and a drop off was likely.
The now 24 year old Draisaitl has two 100+ point seasons under his belt and if this season and if this season wasn't cut short he could have been the first player in decades to reach 130 points. He is the Hart favourite and while he might not be better than McDavid, he was certainly the Oilers MVP this season.
LEON DRAISAITL
71GP: 43-67-110
"Yes, but..." has been the narrative Leon Draisaitl has had to deal with through his young career. "Yes, but he is only doing this because he is playing with McDavid." "Yes, but he is too streaky and can take games off." "Yes, but his shooting percentage is unsustainable."
These people ignore that McDavid's underlying numbers improved whenever he was playing with Draisaitl too, and that he averages nearly a 17% shooting percentage through his career so far. Sure there are times when Draisaitl can play a little too carefree but when he is putting up the numbers he is it's hard to really spend too much time nitpicking there.
Let's look at the numbers, specifically splitting them into two sections; from the beginning of the season to December 30th, and from December 31st to the end of the season.
Due to a lack of high-end NHL talent on the wing, Draisaitl once more started the season on the left wing playing with Connor McDavid and Zack Kassian. Through the first three months of the season, Draisaitl led the team in 5 on 5 scoring (tied with Kassian) with 13 goals and second behind McDavid in individual scoring chances with 93. He also led the team in primary assists which needs to be focused on more. Draisaitl I think unquestionably has the best backhand pass in the entire league.
Likely we could have seen the dynamic duo play together for the entire year but December was a horrid month which actually now could be looked at as a blessing in disguise. Simply put, for whatever reason Draisaitl and McDavid stopped clicking in December.
From the beginning of the season to the end of November (a total of 28 games), Draisaitl had 16 goals (12 at 5 on 5) and 32 assists (17 at 5 on 5).
From December 1st to December 30th, Draisaitl played 13 games and had 6 goals and 7 assists. At first glance that is still a point-per-game pace, but Leon had only a single goal at 5 on 5 and a mere two assists. The even strength offense was not there.
December 31st is an important date as it represents the day Tippett put together the RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto line, effectively creating the line that would drive offense for the Oilers for the remainder of the season.
Through the last 30 games of the season, Draisaitl went supernova, going 21-28-49. At even strength he went 11-20-31. On the powerplay, Draisaitl continues to be the Oilers best weapon but his 5 on 5 numbers were on par with his October/November numbers, and those were completely away from Connor McDavid.
Connor McDavid was out of the lineup from February 9th to February 22nd. In that time the Oilers played 6 games where Draisaitl led the team in goals and assists. Missing the captain is never a good thing but it helped to show around the league that Draisaitl is a dominant player in his own right.
People liked throwing the idea around a few years ago that the Oilers had their own Malkin and Crosby in McDavid and Draisaitl. Now that the Oilers top two players are driving their own lines, that can be said much more confidently as Edmonton has arguably the two best centres in the entire league on their roster.
FINAL GRADE: A+
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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