How Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl became the superstar nobody saw coming

PITTSBURGH — You never know what you’ll get from a National Hockey League draft.

It could be Alexandre Daigle or Nail Yakupov with the No. 1 pick overall, or a sixth-rounder named Pavel Datsyuk.

It could be some cat from Slovenia who ends up as a Hall of Fame candidate, or a kid from Cologne, who no one was sure would even be better at hockey than his father, a German national teamer.

Eleven years later, Leon Draisaitl — the third-overall pick in 2014 — is about to become only the 103rd 1,000-point scorer in NHL history.

He arrived as a lanky German kid with great hair, who had the courage to leave the Rhineland for frosty Prince Albert, Sask., at just 16 years old. Now, Draisaitl is poised to become the 20th European-trained player to scale four figures, and the 21st fastest player in NHL history.

He looked like a nice player, sure. But nobody saw this coming.

“The first time I saw him? The very first training camp? No, I didn’t see a 1,000 point player,” said Todd McLellan, who arrived as head coach in Draisaitl’s second pro season in 2015. “He just hadn’t got his body figured out yet. He was carrying a big frame and had to get stronger.

“When I really, really knew was that playoff run (in 2017). We went two rounds and went to Game 7 against Anaheim, and he, he really took the game over then.”

That spring was the first time we witnessed Draisaitl leapfrog Connor McDavid as Edmonton’s best player over a long stretch of important games. Anaheim, with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, simply couldn’t handle him.

Now, Draisaitl will never be viewed as a better overall player than McDavid. Nor will anyone in this generation of NHLers, except perhaps Sidney Crosby. But anyone who still subscribes to the theory that Draisaitl is some sidekick, or somehow is riding McDavid’s coattails to success, merely advertises the fact that their bedtime comes before the Western games drop a puck.

“You watch him play, and most nights he’s noticeable of course, but you look at the score sheet and he’s got a goal and two assists,” said Minnesota’s Nico Sturm, a fellow German who plays for the Minnesota Wild. “The best players in the world, that’s what they do: they always find a way to contribute.

“There was a time when people said, ‘Yeah, he’s just feeding off of Connor.’ But he’s become the prototype centre: big, strong, good at draws, lethal shot… Probably the best passer in the league, especially on his backhand. The way he shields the puck — when he puts his arm out, it’s very, very hard to get the puck.

“You think of the prototype No. 1 centre? That’s what he is.”

The elegance of Draisaitl’s game recalls the great Jean Beliveau. A tall, strong, left-shot centreman who can pass and shoot at equal levels of greatness. But Beliveau, they say, didn’t have the mean streak that playoff Draisaitl conjures up. He didn’t bull through players to score goals in traffic, or answer a slash with a slash, usually raising the ante somewhat.

That was Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard’s forte, the historians say, and though Draisaitl doesn’t drop ‘em and slug it out the way the Rocket once did, he gives back twice what he receives. It hurts to play against Draisaitl, and not just in your plus-minus.

Tuesday in Pittsburgh (Sportsnet, 7:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. MT), after a pointless Sunday in Montreal, the Oilers bench will likely spill over in congratulations of their alternate captain at some point during the evening. That Stuart Skinner is expected to be in goal for the Penguins just thickens the soup that much more.

One thousand points in 824 games. Four hundred and 16 goals, 583 assists so far.

It’s a 1.21 points per game pace that only some of the most elite former Oilers have attained.

“It’s certainly something that I never thought would be possible. Something that was only, truly, a dream,” said Draisaitl, who is still only 30. “To be closing in on (1,000) … it’s something that’s hard to explain. There are a lot of people who help along the way. A lot of people who understand who you are, and want the best for you.”

Like Alphonso Davies, the Edmonton-raised left-back who has become a megastar in Germany playing for Bayern Munich, Draisaitl — dubbed the Deutchland Dangler — has come from a non-traditional hockey country and become a superstar in our game.

“He’s our guy,” said Detroit’s German defenceman, Moritz Seider. “He’s the one. He’s a bright star, just shining in the spotlight as he should. As he deserves.

“We’re proud of that, how much of an impact he has on a daily basis. It’s not like he just shows up here and there. He shows up every single game. That’s most remarkable.”

“We don’t have a ton of stars outside of soccer,” added Sturm. “So it’s good to have someone who people recognize. Someone who has an impact beyond the game itself, and can act as a role model.

“Kids like the stars — that’s the way it is.”

He is, legitimately, the first world-class superstar hockey player Germany has ever produced.

To wit: There have been 10, 50-goal, 100-point NHL seasons posted in the last decade. Draisaitl has four of those. (Auston Matthews has two, four players have one each.)

Is the 50-goal, 100-point player the best player there is? We’re not sure of that, but it’s an awfully strong place to start.

As for his countrymen, the highest-scoring German to date is Marco Sturm, the Boston Bruins head coach, who had 487 career points. Draisaitl bristles at the comparison.

“I don’t want to start a competition with other Germans, or whoever. I am the player I am,” he stated. “I want to have the best career I can possibly have. I don’t compare myself to anyone. I try to write my own history, my own story.”

Draisaitl’s story comes with some sandpaper.

On one hand, he’s never suffered fools well. He has a German straight-forwardness that makes the vulnerable wilt.

On the other, he has openly accepted a secondary role beneath McDavid with far more grace than many others would.

He is worldly, with homes in Ontario and Portugal and a big endorsement contract in Germany with Puma. But he married a girl from Sudbury, and signed two long NHL contracts — both with Edmonton — each for eight years.

“Of course I want to finish the job. That’s why I pour my heart, my emotions — my body language, sometimes — into it every day,” he once said of playing for Edmonton. “That’s the way I’m wired. I care a lot. Of course I want to finish the job. And I want to finish it here.”

They’ve come painfully close to finishing that job in Edmonton, without quite closing the deal.

But with 1,000 points at age 30, there are nails still in Draisaitl’s pouch.

He’ll finish the job. Or kill someone trying.