Draisaitl injury could be ‘blessing in disguise’ for Oilers, GM says

MANALAPAN, Fla. -- Leon Draisaitl missing the rest of the regular season for the Edmonton Oilers could be a “blessing in disguise,” general manager Stan Bowman said Wednesday.

“He’ll be rested and he’ll be fresh for the playoffs,” Bowman told NHL.com from the League’s GM meetings. “This will be the second year in a row he’ll have missed some time leading in and he’s always unbelievable in the playoffs.”

Draisaitl, who sustained a lower-body injury in a 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators, missed the final seven regular-season games and 11 of the final 14 because of injuries last season. 

He didn’t miss a game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, finishing tied with teammate Connor McDavid for the NHL lead with 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 22 games.

The Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Final but lost to the Florida Panthers for the second straight year.

Draisaitl missed his first game on Tuesday, a 5-3 win against the San Jose Sharks.

Bowman said the forward should be back in time for the playoffs assuming the Oilers make it. They have 77 points, tied for first in the Pacific Division with the Anaheim Ducks, who have two games in hand, but have just a six-point lead the Los Angeles Kings and Seattle Kraken for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.

Draisaitl is fourth in the NHL this season with 97 points (35 goals, 62 assists).

“You have to see how his recovery goes, but if everything goes as scheduled, and we’ll have a better feel for that as we get closer to the end, the expectation is it’ll just be until the end of the regular season,” Bowman said.

Bowman said he was especially pleased that the Oilers had 13 players with at least one point and five different goal-scorers in the win against San Jose.

It’s the sign of what he hopes becomes the norm for the Oilers.

“We’re probably not going to get that much even distribution of points in every game, but it certainly was a boost,” Bowman said. “You could see that it was more of a team approach and it ended up with a big win in a really important game.”

Bowman said his experience as an assistant GM with Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics reinforced the importance of a team approach rather than relying on two players, which he said the Oilers have done too often this season with McDavid and Draisaitl.

“I think one of the reasons we were so successful is we had a lot of different contributors every night,” Bowman said. “Some of the nights our penalty kill was perfect and those fourth-line players were sort of the heroes. Other nights it was the big guys getting it done and other nights it was the third line that was good. So, I think I saw firsthand the importance of a team winning a game rather than one or two great plays by a player. 

“We’ve had that so many times this year where we’ve played decent and then Connor or Leon make a play and we win a game. There’s nothing wrong with that. It is good. But I think sometimes you get into a situation where your players don’t maybe take it upon themselves enough. Now everyone needs to find a way to step up.”

He recalled the end of last season, when McDavid and Drasaitl each missed time in the final 14 games, including six games when they both were out at the same time.

The Oilers went 1-5-0 in those six games but were 7-0-1 when only one of them was out of the lineup.

“The blessing in disguise is it forces everyone to play more who normally just wouldn’t get those minutes,” Bowman said. “It’s not what we wanted, but I think it sometimes helps your team when guys get their individual games going more.”