March 17, 2026 by Ryan Lotsberg

Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl took an awkward hit from Nashville Predators forward Ozzy Weisblatt during the first period of Sunday’s game at Rogers Place. He went straight off the ice and down the tunnel to the Oilers dressing room. He took a couple of shifts later in the period, but was ruled out for the remainder of the game during the first intermission.

The news is much worse than that for Draisaitl, the Oilers, and their fans. The German superstar will miss the remainder of the regular season according to a statement released by the Oilers. Draisaitl visited the doctor to assess the severity of the undisclosed lower body injury while the team practiced on Monday, and the announcement was made Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, Draisaitl sits fourth in the league with 96 points. This will put an end to his streak of four consecutive 100-point seasons. If not for the COVID shortened 2020-21 season, he would have seven straight 100-point seasons. Alas, he will have at least 100 points six of his last eight seasons including this one. 

Draisaitl is second in powerplay points behind teammate Connor McDavid, and he’s tied for third in the league with sixteen powerplay goals. He’s the trigger man on one of the best powerplays in the league.

At five-on-five, he elevates the play of weaker wingers around him. McDavid gets Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the team’s top wingers, as linemates more often than not. Draisaitl is left with good but weaker players like Vasily Podkolzin, Matt Savoie, and Kasperi Kapanen as his wingers mostly. All of those players have done their best work with Draisaitl (although Savoie has played quite well with McDavid in the last couple of games).

According to StatMuse, the Oilers are 30-40-8 without Draisaitl in his career. That pretty much sums up how valuable he is and how instrumental he is to the team’s success.

Draisaitl being on the shelf for the remainder of the stretch drive will limit the Oilers’ ability to win the Pacific Division. I don’t think the Oilers care too much about where they end up in the playoff seeding, but they would be well advised to do whatever they can to avoid being the last wildcard team. That team will face the winner of the vaunted Central Division in the first round. Avoiding the Central Division until the Western Conference Final is important for all the teams in the Pacific Division playoff race.

The Oilers’ final game of the regular season is on April 16, which is essentially a month from now. I can’t diagnose the injury, but here’s what I do know. I can’t think of many injuries where four weeks is the maximum expected recovery time. If it’s a bone break, then it’s four to six weeks. If it’s a high ankle sprain, then it takes six to eight weeks plus a whole bunch of time afterwards to feel fully confident on it again. If it’s a core muscle injury, then it’s something that will be a nuisance and slow him down for many, many months. The same could be said for a hip issue.

My point is that whatever this is will likely be an issue for Draisaitl in the playoffs, that is if he becomes available for the playoffs.

Draisaitl has dominated the playoffs with a high ankle sprain before, so we know he can do that. If it’s anything else listed above, his impact remains to be seen. The Oilers need Draisaitl at his absolute best if they want to go on another deep run this spring.

It’s not possible to replace someone of Draisaitl’s ability. Everyone will have to play a part in filling the void. Perhaps there will be a greater focus on attention to detail all over the ice since they know they don’t have one of their weapons of mass destruction available to them.

This will give certain players an opportunity to step up though. Nugent-Hopkins will have to centre the second line. The plan seems to be to run Nugent-Hopkins on the wing with Jason Dickinson for now as that line played well on Sunday night, but that can’t be the plan for the rest of the season. If Dickinson is relied upon to be the second line centre, the Oilers will be in trouble. He basically had that role in Chicago, but look where that got them to. Dickinson will need support from his wingers to produce enough offence to break even on the scoreboard. I said that when he was expected to be the 3C, and I feel that even more strongly if he’s expected to be the 2C. Savoie will need to continue to find comfort and success in the top six.

Most importantly, the team’s defensive game and goaltending will have to step up because the offence simply can’t be replaced. There have been encouraging signs defensively since the Olympic break, but there have also been a couple of true stinkers laid since that time. Tristan Jarry will need to find his game, and Connor Ingram will have to be a rock.

I don’t mean to sound all “doom and gloom”, but losing Draisaitl is a tough blow for the Oilers. I have faith that they will hold onto a playoff spot without Draisaitl, but I’m even more worried about their potential playoff success now than I was yesterday, and I was already pretty worried about that.