Leon Draisaitl will not be heading to Europe to represent Germany in the men’s World Hockey Championships.
This, according to RanSport, who reported on Wednesday that Draisaitl made “this decision for himself and his body.”
“The fact that Draisaitl even considered travelling to the World Cup should be credited to him,” RanSports’ Luca Ostermeier wrote via Google Translate. “The intense NHL season in the bones is one thing, the bitter playoff end in the head is another. Nevertheless, his thoughts went to his colleagues in Tampere until Tuesday evening.”
On Tuesday during a season-end press conference, Draisaitl said he was in talks about heading overseas, but it appears that plan won’t be going through.
It’s no major surprise as Germany has struggled in the World’s so far. They’ve lost all three games they’ve played in, but they have kept them tight. They lost 1-0 to Sweden in their tournament opening game, and fell 4-3 to Finland in their second game. Germany lost 3-2 to USA on Monday.
Germany has four tournament games remaining facing Denmark, Austria, Hungary and France.
Draisaitl, meanwhile, had a career year with the Oilers this season scoring 52 goals, 76 assists and 128 points. His assist and point totals were career highs, while his goal total was three shy of his career high. He showed up big in the playoffs, too, scoring 13 goals and 18 points in 12 games.
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