Draisaitl hopes Olympics will put more eyes on hockey in native Germany

MILAN -- Leon Draisaitl is here to win a medal. There’s no debating that, no questioning it regardless of whatever chances some may think Team Germany has against elite competition in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

But the Edmonton Oilers forward does not need to be reminded there’s something bigger for him and his teammates to play for here. They already know what a strong showing could mean for German hockey.

“We’re hoping to gather some fans,” Draisaitl said following practice Tuesday. “We’re hoping to get kids in Germany to tune into our games against Denmark, against Latvia, against the U.S. and for them to say, ‘Oh, I want to try that sport,’ because back home the easiest thing in the world to do is grab a soccer ball and play soccer.”

Draisaitl admits that during the NHL season, when he’s uber-focused on the Oilers and trying to win the Stanley Cup, thinking about his status as a role model for German kids “slips away from you a little bit just naturally because you’re in the NHL, and that’s your everyday,” he said.

It’s on his mind now because he will be wearing the German sweater, wearing a "C" as captain, when Germany plays its first game of the tournament against Team Denmark at Rho Arena on Thursday (3:10 p.m. ET; Peacock, CBC Gem, TSN).

“You know, this doesn’t happen every day,” Draisaitl said, tugging at his practice jersey. “This is not my jersey every day, so this is really special, especially at this event.

“There’s really no bigger stage than this for us. It makes it probably a little bit more important.”

There is no bigger German male athlete here than Draisaitl, the NHL’s all-time leading scorer among players from his country with 1,036 points (428 goals, 608 assists) in 845 games. It’s a statement that can be made definitively because he was selected as Germany’s flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremony via a vote of fans and members of the German Olympic team.

Ski jumper Katharina Schmid joined him in that honor Friday.

“It speaks for itself that he got voted to be our flag-bearer,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “There are great other performers and they won Olympic medals, but he’s our big star and we put all the praise on him because he deserves it.”

Draisaitl wears it with pride.

“It’s really, really special getting to represent your country and carry the flag out at maybe the biggest sporting event in the world,” he said. “It is something I don’t take for granted, something I don’t take lightly and something that I’m certainly very proud of.”

His pride will swell if he can help Germany do something special here on the ice. That happened without him in PyeongChang in 2018, when Germany reached the gold medal game only to lose 4-3 in overtime to the Olympic Athletes of Russia.

NHL players did not participate at that Olympics, but it remains a pivotal point for German hockey.

Germany previously had not earned better than a bronze medal at the Olympics, and it was the country’s first medal of any kind since 1976.

“We won silver,” Seider said. “I was still in school. You see the spirit around, the hype that it’s getting. Those are the moments you dream about and you’re like, ‘All right, I want to be a part of that.’”

Now imagine Germany finding its way to the medal stand, or at the very least putting a scare into one of the big boys of international hockey, with its biggest star on the Olympic stage leading the way, and young stars like Seider and forwards Tim Stutzle, JJ Peterka and Josh Samanski also playing important roles.

It would be massive, even bigger than 2018. It arguably would be the most important moment in German hockey history.

It also would mean Draisaitl delivered on his stated goal of pushing the sport more into the mainstream in his home country.

“For us, it’s time to get kids in Germany to love hockey and enjoy it and enjoy watching it,” Draisaitl said, “and this is a great stage to do that.”