Draisaitl expected to be out rest of regular season for Oilers

Leon Draisaitl is expected to be out for the rest of the regular season for the Edmonton Oilers because of a lower-body injury. 

The 30-year-old center sustained the injury in a 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Sunday. Draisaitl left the game after taking a hit from Predators forward Ozzy Wiesblatt at 4:20 of the first period. He returned for two shifts toward the end of the period but did not play in the second or third.

"Obviously, he's a top-four scorer, one of the most elite players in the League, so it's not like one guy can just step into his shoes," forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said Tuesday.  "We kind of talked about it this morning; it's a collective thing with our group that everybody's going to need to pick up the slack."

Draisaitl is fourth in the NHL with 97 points (35 goals, 62 assists) in 65 games.

The Oilers (33-26-9) have 14 games remaining in the regular season, beginning against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, NBCSCA). Edmonton is third in the Pacific Division, one point behind the Vegas Golden Knights and two back of the Anaheim Ducks.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are scheduled to begin April 18, two days after the Oilers' final regular-season game.

"You don't fill the void," Oilers captain Connor McDavid said Monday. "We have lots of guys in here that can lead. We have lots of different guys that have a voice in here. Obviously he's got a big one. If he's not playing for a little bit or if he is, it doesn't matter. We need leaders this time of year and we need our group to be lively and energetic and that's with or without him in the lineup.

The Oilers will also have to fill Draisaitl's role on the top power-play unit. He leads the team and is tied for third in the NHL with 16 power-play goals and is second in the NHL with 42 power-play points, behind McDavid (46).

"We're going to play around with it," Knoblauch said. "I think the importance of winning that face-off is part of it. Having the best five guys and who is going to work together. I think there will be a lot of power-play guys that can play it, but it's who's going to work well, move and read the play as well to know what McDavid's doing, (Evan) Bouchard, (Zach) Hyman at the net. Obviously, we haven't much time to work on it. Going forward we'll have some morning skates that we can do that. Right now, it's just trial and error."

Draisaitl is a four-time 50-goal scorer and leads the NHL in goals since the 2018-19 season (359) and is second in points (846) behind McDavid (940). He won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for leading the NHL in goals in 2024-25 (52) and the Art Ross Trophy in 2019-20 when he led the League with 110 points. That same season, he won the Hart Trophy (NHL MVP) and Ted Lindsay Award (NHL MVP as voted by the NHL Players' Association).

"One thing that's going to be most important is defending and checking and playing that stingy game," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We'll probably lose a little bit of the scoring, but you have to check your way to find those opportunities now. He's obviously a huge piece of this team and we have to find ways to win games without him. "

Draisaitl had been centering the second line, with McDavid, Adam Henrique and Jason Dickinson as the other centers.

"We'll definitely need centers to work in and out," Knoblauch said. "'Nuge' is a guy that can do that, but we feel (Josh) Samanski can play some center; he's doing a great job with that. His role will get a little bit bigger now. We have a lot of options, but right now we'll keep our centers as McDavid, Dickinson, Samanski and Henrique."

The No. 3 pick by Edmonton in the 2014 NHL Draft, Draisaitl has 1,053 points (434 goals, 619 assists) in 855 regular-season games and 141 points (52 goals, 89 assists) in 96 playoff games.

NHL.com staff writer Derek Van Diest contributed to this report