{"id":485397,"date":"2026-03-17T19:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=485397"},"modified":"2026-03-17T19:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:21:22","slug":"edmonton-superstar-leon-draisaitl-out-for-remainder-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/17\/edmonton-superstar-leon-draisaitl-out-for-remainder-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Superstar Leon Draisaitl Out For Remainder of the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Talk about terrible timing. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/02\/report-news-edmonton-oilers-chicago-blackhawks-trade-deadline-defenceman\/\" target=\"_self\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a> will lose one of their superstar players, <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/draisle01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-17_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leon Draisaitl<\/a>, for the rest of the 2025-26 regular season. He sustained a lower-body injury in the first period against the Nashville Predators on Sunday. The Oilers did not reveal what exactly his injury was, but Oilers reporter Mark Spector mentioned that it could be a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB4zaJ90lC\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4843px; aspect-ratio: 4843\/3229;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Credit Image: \u00a9 Alex Cave\/ZUMA Press Wire<\/p>\n<h3>Leon Draisaitl Hurt At The Worst Time For the Oilers<\/h3>\n<p>With the Oilers not safe by any stretch in the Stanley Cup Playoff race in the Western Conference, this injury comes at a bad time. They currently sit in third place in the Pacific Division, four points ahead of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/06\/seattle-kraken-extends-one-of-its-originals\/\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Kraken<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/06\/toronto-maple-leafs-trade-scott-laughton-in-nhl-deadline-deal\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Kings<\/a>. Draisaitl had recorded 35 goals and 62 assists for 97 points in 65 games this season. He is an excellent playmaker and sniper, and also the Oilers&#8217; best player on the faceoff dot this season. He ranks seventh in the league in the number of faceoffs won this season with 628. Furthermore, he has a 56.9% win percentage on the draws.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Let&#39;s see who this year&#39;s Edmonton Oilers really are. <\/p>\n<p>If they\u2019re good enough to survive the next five weeks without Leon Draisaitl, maybe they\u2019re good enough to be a Stanley Cup contender once again. (<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SportsnetSpec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@SportsnetSpec<\/a>) <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZjYCugo0v5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/ZjYCugo0v5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sportsnet\/status\/2034000970225750358?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, the centre depth of the Oilers will be tested here. <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/henriad01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-17_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Henrique<\/a> returned from injury on March 12th, and he can play on the third or fourth-line centre position. <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/samanjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-17_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Samanski<\/a> was recalled from the Bakersfield Condors on an emergency basis on March 8th. Consequently, he will likely need to stay in the lineup now that Draisaitl is out. The Oilers will also need to depart from relying on their two best players and play a more balanced game.<\/p>\n<h3>How Will The Oilers Respond?<\/h3>\n<p>Top players <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcdavco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-17_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor McDavid<\/a> and <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nugenry01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-17_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Nugent-Hopkins<\/a> commented on losing their teammate to injury. &#8220;<span><em>It\u2019s the old clich\u00e9: Everyone is going to have to be better,&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>said McDavid. &#8220;<em>We\u2019ve got to find ways to win games without him,&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>Nugent-Hopkins commented.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"RAW | Connor McDavid 03.16.26\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QSjXZ093ALs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PRE-RAW | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 03.17.26\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b2n9Zfl_KUE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With the Oilers continuing to be in the &#8220;cup-or-bust&#8221; era of their team, they will need to show what they are made of. They may not be able to outscore their defensive issues anymore without Draisaitl. Certainly, Connor McDavid will carry the offensive charge in his absence. However, as they are 27th in the league in goals-against per game at 3.37, their defence will need to improve if they want to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Perry Nelson &#8211; Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Talk about terrible timing. The Edmonton Oilers will lose one of their superstar players, Leon Draisaitl, for the rest of the 2025-26 regular season. He sustained a lower-body injury in the first period against the Nashville Predators on Sunday. The Oilers did not reveal what exactly his injury was, but Oilers reporter Mark Spector mentioned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5733,"featured_media":476486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4547,6671,34,4548],"tags":[193],"class_list":["post-485397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oilers","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-news","category-nhl","tag-leon-draisaitl"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485397"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485403,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485397\/revisions\/485403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}