Draisaitl may not be ready by start of playoffs for Oilers

EDMONTON -- Leon Draisaitl may not be ready when the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin, Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said Monday. 

The forward hasn’t played since sustaining a lower-body injury in a 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators on March 15.

The Oilers (39-29-9) have five regular-season games remaining before the postseason begins. They are tied for first atop the Pacific Division with the Anaheim Ducks but have yet to clinch a playoff berth. 

Edmonton's last regular-season game in April 16. The playoffs begin two days later. 

“Leon is going to be on the ice this week and I don’t anticipate him playing any games in the regular season, and in the playoffs, sometime in the first round if things go well,” Knoblauch said. “I’m not ruling that out (first game of the playoffs), but I would just anticipate sometime in the first (round). There’s a period of time we anticipated his return and we said it was going to be right around the end of the regular season, at the start of playoffs.”

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

The 30-year-old was injured when he took a hit from Predators forward Ozzy Wiesblatt at 4:20 of the first period in the win against Nashville after scoring the opening goal at 3:12 on the power play. 

Draisaitl returned for two shifts toward the end of the first but did not play in the second or third.

“If he gets in that first game (of the playoffs), that’s great,” Knoblauch said. “He’s not been on the ice yet. We anticipate he will be on the ice sometime this week and we’ll have an indication of how that’s going to go. I’ll probably sometime in that first round.”

Draisaitl returned home to Germany to receive treatment for the injury from a specialist.

While in Germany, he attended an FC Bayern Munich soccer game in Munich and spoke to a television reporter after the game. He was asked in German whether he would be able to play for the Oilers in the playoffs. 

“I hope so. That’s the plan, the reason I’m here right now," Draisaitl told Sky Sport on March 21. “(The recovery) will definitely take a few weeks, that’s for sure. I hope we play long enough so I can help out again at some point.” 

Edmonton begins a three-game road trip at the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360). It has reached the Stanley Cup Final the past two seasons, falling to the Florida Panthers each time. 

Draisaitl had 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in the playoffs last season, and 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists) in 2024. 

The Oilers are also without forward Zach Hyman, who has an undisclosed injury and is not expected to play on the road trip. Edmonton visits the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday and the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. 

“Hyman, I would think he’s going to play one if not two games before the end of this season,” Knoblauch said. “So, this week he’s out and not playing.”

Hyman has 51 points (31 goals, 20 assists) in 57 games. He missed the first 19 games of the season recovering from a broken wrist sustained in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars. 

“Obviously we’re missing two big pieces of our team and when that happens everybody’s got to step up,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said Monday. “We’re focusing on this road trip and trying to get a couple of wins and we have to go from there.”

Edmonton is 6-3-0 without Draisaitl, which included a season long, five-game winning streak that ended with a 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.

The power play, however, has taken a massive hit without Draisaitl; the Oilers are 2-for-21 (9.5 percent) with the man-advantage (30th in the NHL) in the nine games without Draisaitl and have allowed two short-handed goals. 

“We’re missing them a lot on the power play; the power play hasn’t been nearly as effective,” McDavid said. “I still think we’re getting looks, we’re just not putting them in. The power play obviously has to help offensively, it has to be a part of it. We’re working hard at it, it’s been a work in progress and those two guys are a big piece of it.”

With Draisaitl, Edmonton had the best power play in the League at 31.9 percent (60-for-188). Draisaitl had 16 power-play goals. Hyman has 10 power-play goals. 

“We’re trying to win as many games as possible and to do that special teams are really important, the penalty kill and power play included,” Knoblauch said. “I think that power play has been really snake bitten. The chance-generation since Leon’s been gone, we noticed it would definitely take a drop.

"You’re missing one of the best power-play guys and the impact that he has, but it is still near the top of the NHL in chance-generation. Unfortunately, putting the puck in the net, which is what it’s all about, we just haven’t been able to do that.”

Edmonton was in a similar position toward the end of last season when Draisaitl missed the final seven games of the regular season with an undisclosed injury. He returned for the first game of the playoffs and helped the Oilers reach the Cup Final again. 

Despite not having Draisaitl down the stretch again, defenseman Mattias Ekholm said Edmonton’s approach remains the same. 

“I don’t think we come in here and see that we’re missing two big guys and are going to flip the script,” Ekholm said. “Obviously, we’re missing some goal-scoring, but I think guys have stepped up and I think we’ve all realized we’re going to have to play some defense. We have to emphasize that part, I can’t stress that enough. I think over the five-game win streak that’s what the key was to our wins, it wasn’t us outscoring, it was keeping the goals-against low.”