Leon Draisaitl’s path to being elite wasn’t always clear

The National Hockey League has long been aware of Leon Draisaitl’s dominance and Oilers fans have long been aware of hockey lucky they are to watch #29 play on a nightly basis.

That didn’t make Tuesday night in Pittsburgh any less special as the Oilers superstar became just the 103rd player in NHL history, and the first German-born player, to hit the milestone.

Any player who’s one of the first three picks of any NHL Draft obviously has the chance of becoming a star player, but I don’t think even the most optimistic of Oilers fans or draft analysts thought that Draisaitl would have this kind of career.

Hockeyprospects.com had Draisaitl ranked 6th in their final rankings, Bob McKenzie had him at 4th, ISS Hockey had him at 6th as well. Some had him as low as 7th in their final rankings.

Not one of the 16 final rankings from 2014 that I went back to look at had him ranked first or second.

How about this quote from a scout that I found in an Oilersnation article in 2014?

Leon Draisaitl’s skating is an issue. He’s a big man and has an unusual stride, most comments I read about him mention quick starts as an issue. WHL from Above’s Cody Nickolet suggests “his skating is also another area of concern as he’s got a choppy, ugly stride.”

Even more recent pieces of analysis like NHL.com’s “2014 Re-Draft” had David Pastrnak going first overall five years after the draft happened.

Of course, I’m not doing this to dunk on anybody but more to show that Draisaitl did not go into that draft hyped up as someone who would eventually become one of the best players in the NHL history, but here we are, in year 12 of his career and the accolades that he’s racked up speak for themselves.

He’s a four-time 50-goal scorer who has an Art Ross, a Rocket Richard and a Hart Trophy under his belt. On top of that, he’s established himself as one of the best playoff performers of his generation with 64 points in the Oilers’ last two playoff runs alone.

With 1000 points behind him, he’s already one of the best players in the history of the sport, but how high can he go?

Well, at just 30 years old, I think it’s fair to assume that if he stays healthy, Draisaitl should have another 10 years in him.

Let’s say for the next five years he stays very productive and averages 100 points a season, which would actually be a step down from what he currently does, and then in the final 5 years, his average drops to 70 points a season (some would be up, some would be down).

That projection would mean another 850 points for Draisaitl, which doesn’t even include whatever he puts up for the remainder of this season.

There is a chance that Leon Draisaitl not only works his way into the top ten all-time in NHL scoring, but I’d be willing to say that he has a chance to reach 1900 points, which only two other players in the history of the sport have ever done.

Of course, he’d have to stay healthy to do it, and I realize some people might say that I’m crazy for throwing that out there but just remember, on the draft floor in 2014 no one was thinking that the clunky skater playing in Prince Albert would have the career that he’s already had.