Player Discussion Leon Draisaitl - 2019 All-Star

[Kolja]

2nd in goals. 4th in points. Young, big, can play any position. Getting better every season. When can we start calling contract a steal?

 

[OilerTitanFan]

2nd in goals. 4th in points. Young, big, can play any position. Getting better every season. When can we start calling contract a steal?

He's not a steal compared to Brad Marchand. According to the mains, Marchand win games and Draisaitl can't. Marchand is supposedly the better player with a cheap contract.

 

[A91]

He's not a steal compared to Brad Marchand. According to the mains, Marchand win games and Draisaitl can't. Marchand is supposedly the better player with a cheap contract.

Marchand is a damn good player. Both are in the same tier imo.

 

[joestevens29]

Marchand is a damn good player. Both are in the same tier imo.

I agree. I can see why people would like Marchand's contract better.

I don't really understand the point of arguing about players. There is a good group of guys that are really good this year, all are unique in their own way.

Barkov, Marner, LD, Marchand, Gaudreau, Point etc... All are special in their own way.

 

[Fourier]

I agree. I can see why people would like Marchand's contract better.

I don't really understand the point of arguing about players. There is a good group of guys that are really good this year, all are unique in their own way.

Barkov, Marner, LD, Marchand, Gaudreau, Point etc... All are special in their own way.

Marchand is on a great deal right now but he is about to turn 31 with 6 years left. The issue is not even so much his age but also that Bergeron will be 34 soon and the key to that line is having all three guys going.

 

[A91]

Marchand is on a great deal right now but he is about to turn 31 with 6 years left. The issue is not even so much his age but also that Bergeron will be 34 soon and the key to that line is having all three guys going.

I feel those guys will age well tbh

 

[backhandsauce]

Leon is going to win the Rocket! Only 2 behind Ovi.

 

[Drivesaitl]

My comments in the 2014 thread were very positive on the pick. I thought the fans would really like Drai and his professional accountability to rise to the occasion. This was always going to be a horse of a player at worst verging on a Power Forward game. This was always going to be a player motivated and interested in constantly improving. What you get with Leon is a player packed with incredible resolve himself that is combined with the player wisdom and understanding on the ice of having a hockey coach father that has taught him the nuances of the game from an early age.

Drai's vision on ice and sense of what will happen next is the best I've seen here since Gretzky. He simply comprehends hockey far beyond his age and experience and partly due to his fathers tutelage.

Mess benefitted similarly from this. Of course its still up to the boy to become a man, in both instances, but both Mark and Leon had limited difficulty doing that.

Nice to see Drai get rewarded this season in the way that he is and silencing critics.

 

[ThePhoenixx]

My comments in the 2014 thread were very positive on the pick. I thought the fans would really like Drai and his professional accountability go rise to the occasion. This was always going to be a horse of a player at worst verging on a Power Forward game. This was always going to be a player motivated and interested in constantly improving. What you get with Leon is a player packed with incredible resolve himself that is combined with the player wisdom and understanding on the ice of having a hockey coach father that has taught him the nuances of the game from an early age.

Drai's vision on ice and sense of what will happen next is the best I've seen here since Gretzky. He simply comprehends hockey far beyond his age and experience and partly due to his fathers tutelage.

Mess benefitted similarly from this. Of course its still up to the boy to become a man, in both instances, but both Mark and Leon had limited difficulty doing that.

Nice to see Drai get rewarded this season in the way that he is and silencing critics.

I gave Replacement a like.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I gave Replacement a like.

In that thread? haha

Well that's noteworthy.

 

[ThePhoenixx]

In that thread? haha

Well that's noteworthy.

It was the only like. I believe that one was pre-like.

 

[Drivesaitl]

It was the only like. I believe that one was pre-like.

What page of the thread? You got me curious now. Well, I'm a naturally curious cat...

 

[ThePhoenixx]

What page of the thread? You got me curious now. Well, I'm a naturally curious cat...

I only made it to around page 4...I dunno, it was a few days ago!

I can barely remember yesterday.

Edit: Yup. Page 4.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I only made it to around page 4...I dunno, it was a few days ago!

I can barely remember yesterday.

Edit: Yup. Page 4.

haha. That post. look like such a school marm with the Annie Clarke get up chiding ridiculous posts like that. Does that poster responded to still post? Some comments in that thread sure didn't age well. I'm glad I was very positive about the pick in every post..

Thread necromancy can be hell..

 

[CraigsList]

I thought it was a load of garbage that he was nominated to go to the All Star game when the Flames and other teams had plenty of players that could have gone to the AS game as well (remembering this from reading your title). Man was I so wrong, eating so much crow. He's been one of the best players post AS break.

The dude is a stud and I hoped that we would have been able to grab him in the 2014 draft, but we were in the perfect position of picking whatever player was left in the top 4 that year and unfortunately Bennett has not turned out to be the kind of player that I had hoped for him to become (yet). I still have hope in a way, but another part of me is saying that it is wishful thinking to think that Bennett will ever reach to a star like LD has become on the Oilers.

Shame your GM has ****ed you guys over, but it is what it is I guess. Should be interesting to see if LD can continue a pace like this next season. If not, well, I think there are a lot of players that are due for regression. This season has been offensively bizarre.

 

[OilerTitanFan]

I thought it was a load of garbage that he was nominated to go to the All Star game when the Flames and other teams had plenty of players that could have gone to the AS game as well (remembering this from reading your title). Man was I so wrong, eating so much crow. He's been one of the best players post AS break.

The dude is a stud and I hoped that we would have been able to grab him in the 2014 draft, but we were in the perfect position of picking whatever player was left in the top 4 that year and unfortunately Bennett has not turned out to be the kind of player that I had hoped for him to become (yet). I still have hope in a way, but another part of me is saying that it is wishful thinking to think that Bennett will ever reach to a star like LD has become on the Oilers.

Shame your GM has ****ed you guys over, but it is what it is I guess. Should be interesting to see if LD can continue a pace like this next season. If not, well, I think there are a lot of players that are due for regression. This season has been offensively bizarre.

I guess are GM screwing our team over benefits your Flames. I don't think LD will regress. He will get better next season. If he was to regress, it would have already happened a few yrs ago. He's fast, big, and strong. He has an extra gear and it all depends on whether he wants to take it up another notch next season.

 

[ConnorMcMullet]

Ovechkin has 4 empty net goals.

Draisaitl has 0.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

I thought it was a load of garbage that he was nominated to go to the All Star game when the Flames and other teams had plenty of players that could have gone to the AS game as well (remembering this from reading your title). Man was I so wrong, eating so much crow. He's been one of the best players post AS break.

The dude is a stud and I hoped that we would have been able to grab him in the 2014 draft, but we were in the perfect position of picking whatever player was left in the top 4 that year and unfortunately Bennett has not turned out to be the kind of player that I had hoped for him to become (yet). I still have hope in a way, but another part of me is saying that it is wishful thinking to think that Bennett will ever reach to a star like LD has become on the Oilers.

Shame your GM has ****ed you guys over, but it is what it is I guess. Should be interesting to see if LD can continue a pace like this next season. If not, well, I think there are a lot of players that are due for regression. This season has been offensively bizarre.

I highly doubt he will continue to shoot anywhere close to his 22%, but he also isn't a volume shooter and his career average is around 16% IIRC.

The real joke of that thing was how Gio wasnt there over someone like pavelski.

 

[McSuper]

As a rule I don't care about all star games but sometime it only takes a small boost in confidence to make a player believe in themselves . Draisaitl won the passing event and looked very good at the allstar game /weekend . He came out of the allstar game on fire and never looked back . I think the allstar weekend made Draisaitl believe he one of the games best . Now we get to enjoy the ride of watching what he can become

 

[Fourier]

I highly doubt he will continue to shoot anywhere close to his 22%, but he also isn't a volume shooter and his career average is around 16% IIRC.

The real joke of that thing was how Gio wasnt there over someone like pavelski.

Honestly, it is hard to see him scoring close to 50 on a regular basis. No one not named Ovi does that so a drop back into the 35-40 range should not surprise anyone. But one thing I would say about Leon is that his one timer is getting better and better all the time. If he keeps improving on that aspect of his game he could very well be a regular 40+ goal scorer.

 

[Maverick41]

Honestly, it is hard to see him scoring close to 50 on a regular basis. No one not named Ovi does that so a drop back into the 35-40 range should not surprise anyone. But one thing I would say about Leon is that his one timer is getting better and better all the time. If he keeps improving on that aspect of his game he could very well be a regular 40+ goal scorer.

I just hope that if he does improve his one timer further he will spend less time in the high slot on the power play. Yes, he can do some damage there too, but I'd rather see him in a position were he can use his one timer better.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Honestly, it is hard to see him scoring close to 50 on a regular basis. No one not named Ovi does that so a drop back into the 35-40 range should not surprise anyone. But one thing I would say about Leon is that his one timer is getting better and better all the time. If he keeps improving on that aspect of his game he could very well be a regular 40+ goal scorer.

Certainly a difficult task to return to this loft. Nobody but OV scores 50 on a regular basis as you say.

But some proviso. The top 5 scorers in the NHL this season are OV, age 33, Tavares age 28, Kane age 30, Stamkos, age 29. Draisaitl age 23 (and started the season at age 22). So that his goal scoring company at the top are an average age 30. Goal scorers typically age well like wine. They develop different tricks, experience, time to evaluate what works, hone their game. Drai has the added benefit of Phil Esposito size and posturing . He protects the puck well, uses his body well to shield, works cycles leading to goals very well, and basically can't be removed from scoring areas.

The interesting thing with Drai is he's constantly working on new techniques to get scoring chances. He's a great student of the game (with his coach father also in his ear) and one of the more recent adaptations is his quick turn around shot. He'll stop a puck on a pass and turn around and blaze a shot. This is a guy that must study game film and techiques that have worked before and he tirelessly practices this stuff. If Drai gets any better at getting shots off in tight in the slot its a nightmare for opponents.

Didn't even mention how good Drai has become at cloaking into and changing his spots. He's real hard to cover. its not like he sets up just in one spot. He realizes the importance of moving around and not being static and anticipating when to go into areas. He could even improve on the latter (Nuge does this very well, being in the right spot)

 

[Drivesaitl]

I just hope that if he does improve his one timer further he will spend less time in the high slot on the power play. Yes, he can do some damage there too, but I'd rather see him in a position were he can use his one timer better.

What Drai wants to avoid, and should, is being a too predictable scorer. Goal scorers need to constantly develop different tactical methods of scoring. To grow that, not limit it. If you go to the one well too many times it starts drying up. Because it becomes too predictable. Teams can then cheat to tendency, goalies can cheat to tendency.

 

[bucks_oil]

I gave Replacement a like.

Oooohhh!!! Wait, Draisaitl is Replacement??? Ha, of course he is.... not sure how I missed that. Oops!

 

[Duke74]

What Drai wants to avoid, and should, is being a too predictable scorer. Goal scorers need to constantly develop different tactical methods of scoring. To grow that, not limit it. If you go to the one well too many times it starts drying up. Because it becomes too predictable. Teams can then cheat to tendency, goalies can cheat to tendency.

In particular, he needs to come up with better moves on breakaways. The sheer number of missed breakaways this year has been maddening. If he scored on even half of them, he'd be blowing Ovi out of the water. Perhaps that's something he can work into his summer routine.