EDMONTON — Leon Draisaitl will walk into the Hockey Hall of Fame without quarrel in the first November that he becomes eligible, some 10 or 12 years from now.
And we’ll all wonder then, if not long before, how it was that some people had the ignorance to say with conviction that this smooth German centre was somehow a product of playing on a team with Connor McDavid.
As if anyone could be this good by osmosis, or that someone’s — even McDavid’s — coattails could be that big.
As he crested the 50-goal mark for the fourth time in his career Saturday — just the 15th player in NHL history to have four 50-goal seasons — it was fitting that Draisaitl, listed as questionable to play after the morning skate, walked off the injury list to produce two goals and an assist in a 3-2 overtime win over Calgary.
“He was amazing tonight, coming back from an injury and scoring two crucial goals for us,” marvelled 10-year teammate Darnell Nurse. “He made some amazing defensive plays over the course of the game — he was our leader out there tonight.”
Draisaitl tramped down the right wing and ripped one off the far post for his 50th goal of the season, tying the game 2-2 with 3:12 to play. Then he whistled home No. 51 in overtime, another well-placed wrist shot that capped a night on which the Oilers’ best player this season did everything you could possibly ask of him — and more.
It was his sixth OT winner of the season, an NHL record. Draisaitl, who wears his age (29) on his back this season, is now tied for the Oilers’ record with 72 game-winners, alongside Glenn Anderson and McDavid.
“I’ll get a call from my old man. And maybe my Mom too,” he joked post-game. “Tight games are always a little bit more special, a little more fun to be in. I thought we played well for the most part and hung in there, and sometimes you have to win those games as well.”
Like all great players, you’ll never get a true sense of his worth by speaking to Draisaitl. And the rest of the Oilers, as they are with McDavid, are running out of descriptors for the completeness of his all-around game.
“We have huge goals here as an organization, as a team,” Nurse said. “Sometimes you take for granted the big moments that happen throughout the season, the big moments that players produce. He’s done so much for our group, not just this year but years in the past, and he just continues.”
Draisaitl said before the game, when asked about what has become an annual climb to 50 goals, “I grew up as, well, certainly not a goal scorer. Always been a passer, and I worked a lot at (the scoring) part of my game. For that to shine through still means a lot to me.”
Quipped Nurse, “There aren’t many pass-first, consistent 50-goal scorers. He’s one.”
Draisaitl beat the Flames’ young Calder candidate Dustin Wolf with a pair of his trademark wristers, courtesy of a paddle known among his teammates as “The Burger Flipper.”
It’s a gruesome twig with a blade like a spatula, but sometimes, the ugliest utensil cooks up the finest cuisine.
“If you saw his stick, you would be surprised he could shoot at all,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “But he’s very deceptive. It does have some velocity, but I wouldn’t say it’s overpowering. I know the goalies find it very difficult to pick up his shot and where it’s going to go.”
It may sting the young Wolf today, with his team likely cooked in the Western wild-card race after this crucial point lost. But one day, he’ll tell his grandchildren that he faced one of the best of all time and was in the crease on one of his legendary nights, as Draisaitl marks his fourth 50-goal season and sixth 100-point season.
This is the fourth time he has posted a 50-goal, 100-point campaign. He was robbed of a seventh 100-point season in the shortened 2020-21 season, though he’s likely not done yet.
Where some superstars don’t play hurt, or others fail their teams come playoff time, nobody plays hurt and produces in the playoffs like Draisaitl. He dragged a sprained ankle through three rounds of the 2022 playoffs and had 32 points in 16 games.
“It’s difficult to play and score in the regular season and even harder to do it in the playoffs,” Knoblauch said. “And it’s almost impossible to do it in playoffs when you’re hurt. Somehow, he finds a way to do it.”
So Draisaitl has matched Oilers Hall of Famer Jari Kurri with four 50-goal and six 100-point seasons, but how does that compare to some of the other great Europeans in NHL history? Let’s see:
The highest-scoring European of all time, the great Jaromir Jagr, had just three 50-goal seasons to go with five 100-point years. Alex Ovechkin has had nine 50-goal seasons but only four 100-point seasons on his resume — two less than Draisaitl.
Evgeni Malkin has one 50-goal season and three 100-pointers, but he has the ultimate prize: three Stanley Cups.
Still just 29 years old, Draisaitl has already surpassed some of the greatest Europeans in NHL history, where 50-goal, 100-point seasons are concerned:
Brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Sens great Daniel Alfredsson, Mats Sundin and Marian Hossa all had zero 50-goal seasons and one 100-point campaign each. Henrik Zetterberg had none of either.
Peter Stastny (zero and seven), Teemu Selanne (three and three) and Sergei Fedorov (one and two) are all NHL greats whose numbers will likely be surpassed by Draisaitl.
There’s one award left, to be sure, and it comes after four rounds of playoffs.
The Edmonton Oilers may get there eventually. And if they do, Draisaitl’s fingerprints will be all over it, you can be sure.
