Leon Draisaitl

Last Season

Thirty-five goals and 97 points in 65 games — he missed seventeen and still finished at a point and a half a night. Sixteen of the goals came on the power play, which is the number that explains why teams spend the second period trying not to take penalties against Edmonton.

The Finesse Game

The shot is the headline. From the left circle, on his off wing, the one-timer is as heavy and as accurate as anything in the league, and he does not need the pass to be a good one — he will take it in his feet, off his back skate, behind him, and still get it away in a single motion. Goalies know it is coming. It goes in anyway.

Everything else about him is built on deception rather than speed. He is not a fast skater and never has been. What he has instead is an unusual sense of tempo: he slows a play down, holds the puck a half-second past the point where the defense has committed, and then delivers a pass that was available the whole time and that nobody else saw. In tight, his hands are outstanding. He scores an unreasonable number of goals from below the dots by simply outwaiting the goaltender.

He is a genuine center and a genuine winger, which is rarer than it sounds. Put him with McDavid and the two of them play give-and-go hockey that no defensive structure has solved. Split them up and Edmonton has two lines that must be defended honestly.

The Physical Game

Six-two and 209, and he plays a heavy game without playing a mean one. He is very hard to move off a puck along the wall — thick through the legs, low center of gravity, completely willing to absorb a hit to hold possession an extra beat. He initiates contact rarely and finishes checks less than that.

Durability has been ordinary rather than remarkable. He plays through things, and he misses time.

The Intangibles

The honest criticism is the defensive half of the rink. He is not careless, and he has gotten better at it, but he is not the player you send out to protect a one-goal lead if there is anyone else available, and his career plus-minus sits closer to even than a player of this caliber should ever allow.

Against that: he has never once shrunk in a playoff series, and he has spent a decade being the second name on a team that gets discussed as one man’s. If that bothers him, it has not shown on the ice.