Oilers star forward Leon Draisaitl was expected to miss the rest of the regular season with a lower-body injury, the NHL team said Tuesday.
Draisaitl was hurt on a hit from Nashville Predators forward Ozzy Wiesblatt during the first period of Edmonton’s 3-1 win on Sunday.
He went to the locker room, returned for one shift before the end of the period, but was not on the bench to start the second. Draisaitl did not practise with his teammates on Monday.
The Oilers did not provide details about his injury in their one-sentence statement.
The 30-year-old German centre has 35 goals and 62 assists over 65 games for the Oilers this season.
Edmonton took a 33-26-9 record into its home game against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night. Draisaitl, who was fourth in the league with 97 points, was set to miss at least 14 games through April 16.
It remained unclear whether he would miss potential playoff time as well. The post-season is scheduled to begin the weekend of April 18-19.
Picked third overall by Edmonton in the 2014 draft, Draisaitl has been a key part of the team that played in back-to-back Stanley Cup finals the last two seasons.
He had 110 points in the 2019-20 season, the most across the NHL, a performance that earned him both the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP and the Ted Lindsay Award, handed out annually to the player voted most outstanding by other members of the NHL players’ association.
During the 2024-25 campaign, he led the league in goals with 52.
Filling Draisaitl’s hole in the lineup won’t be easy, said veteran forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
“Obviously he’s a top-four scorer, one of the most elite players in the league,” he said Tuesday. “It’s not like one guy can kind of step into his shoes.
“We talked about it this morning, but it’s a collective thing with our group. Everyone is just going to have to pick up a little bit of slack.”
That will require every player in the lineup to take on a “checking mindset,” Nugent-Hopkins added.
“One thing that’s going to be most important is just defending and checking, playing that stingy game,” he said. “You’re probably going to lose a little bit of the scoring, but you’ve got to check your way to find those opportunities now.
“(Draisaitl’s) obviously a huge piece of this team and we’ve got to find ways to win games without him.”
Draisaitl has been a crucial cog in Edmonton’s lethal power play, netting 42 of his points with the man advantage this season.
The team will play around with his spot on the top unit, said head coach Kris Knoblauch.
“I think that we have a lot of good power-play guys that can play it,” he said. “But it’s just who’s going to work well and move and read the play as well to know what (Connor) McDavid’s doing and (Evan) Bouchard and (Zack) Hyman at the net.
“It’s just trial and error right now.”
The Oilers sat third in the Pacific Division standings heading into Tuesday’s game.
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