According to a few sources, it sounds like Edmonton Oilers star center Leon Draisaitl will be returning home to play in Germany for the time being. If the speculation is accurate, he’ll be joining Kolner Haie, under coach Uwe Krupp.
That said, the term “playing” might be misleading.
While German reports link Draisaitl to the Cologne Sharks of the DEL, Draisaitl is allowed to practice with the team, but cannot play any games unless the Oilers loan/assign him there. This is not something they are likely to do.
Sportsnet’s Mark Spector reports that while many Euro players will join with their local teams this offseason, neither Draisaitl nor his agent have asked to play games in Germany. It would be incredibly hard to envision a situation where the Oilers were comfortable risking injury to a player like Draisaitl, and because this is not a lockout, where players are free to play elsewhere, the Oilers control Draisaitl’s playing rights exclusively.
At this point, the belief is that Draisaitl simply reached out to Krupp and asked if they could make room for him to come skate with the team, There’s not much more to it than that.
Draisaitl Is A Horse That Might Need Reining In
The fact that he wants to get to skating already and not take any real time off is a good indicator that Draisaitl isn’t wanting to rest after winning the Art Ross Trophy and being the leading candidate to win the Hart Trophy based on this 2019-20 season.
That’s a good sign for the Oilers. That said, they need to be careful as to what they let him do so as not to risk the team being down one of its best forwards moving into 2020-21.
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