By Dropping the Mitts

Will Draisaitl return to the Raiders? Don’t count on it

Jul 2, 2014 | 6:22 PM

The two biggest questions that are hanging over the Prince Albert Raiders this offseason season are: will Leon Draisaitl and Josh Morrissey return for one more season?

The Edmonton Oilers may have answered the first question this weekend.

They drafted Leon Draisaitl with the third overall pick in Friday’s NHL Entry Draft and Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish left little doubt what his team’s intentions are the German playmaker.

Within 48 hours of drafting Draisaitl, MacTavish traded his second line centre in Sam Gagner to the Tampa Bay Lightning for veteran winger Teddy Purcell on Sunday, opening up a centre spot behind young-gun Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. (Gagner was then traded Sunday from Tampa to the Arizona Coyotes for a B.J. Crombeem and a sixth-round pick).

Drafting Draisaitl and then shipping away Gagner looks very much like a replacement, especially when you look at the rest of the centremen in the Oilers’ system.

SIGA

SIGA and Northern Lights Casino main sponsors of the 31st PAGC Fine Arts Festival

15h ago

Workplace incident

City of Prince Albert pleads guilty to workplace safety violation, handed fines

17h ago

Lighting it up

P.A.'s Zablocki leads Regina to victory on Day 4 at Esso Cup

Apr 24, 2024

The other pivots currently on the active roster are Boyd Gordon and Matt Hendricks, who are unlikely to take on a full-time, top-six role. Gordon, who hails from Unity, Sask., scored his career high of 29 points in his first full NHL season in 2006-2007 and has yet to match that total. Hendricks’ career high is 25 points, and hasn’t scored more than nine points in his last four seasons. They have the largest career highs of any of the centres in the organization, which includes Roman Horak (19 points in 84 career NHL games), Mark Arcobello (18 points in 42 NHL games), Anton Lander (eight points in 94 NHL games) and Will Acton (five points in 30 NHL games).

The Oilers also didn’t address the centreman position in the first day of the free-agency sweepstakes. Instead, they secured three defencemen, trading for Nikita Nikitin from Columbus and signing Mark Fayne and Keith Aulie from free agency. The team also locked down two wingers, signing Benoit Pouliot and re-signing Steve Pinizzotto.

The fact they didn’t already go get a centreman to fit in their top-six, or even to add depth at the position, could suggest already have those positions filled by Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins.

The Oilers are quite excited about the King of Leon as well, MacTavish thinks they’ve just drafted the next Anze Kopitar. There are many similarities between the Los Angeles Kings star and Draisaitl; both are big bodies with great playmaking skill and hail from non-hockey hotbeds (Slovenia and Germany).

Immediately after the draft, MacTavish was asked by TSN’s James Duthie about the Kopitar comparison. “I know you don’t expect that right away—” Duthie said before MacTavish cut him off with, “oh yeah, we do.”

Into the fire

The Oilers have rarely been shy in allowing their prospects an immediate crack at the big show. Since 2010, the Oilers have immediately promoted their first selections to their NHL roster in Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov, all of whom were first overall picks in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 years respectively.

The only first-chosen players that haven’t been immediately promoted since 2006 are last year’s pick in Darnell Nurse, Magnus Paajarvi and Jordan Eberle. Oscar Klefbom was the Oilers’ second pick, 19th overall in 2011 and he didn’t start his pro career until this season.

Here’s how the Oilers have handled their first selections in each draft since 2006.

2014 Draft, Leon Draisaitl, F, 3rd overall, ?
2013 Draft, Darnell Nurse, D, 7th overall, played OHL and AHL in postseason
2012 Draft, Nail Yakupov, F, 1st overall, up right away (on Jan. 19 when 2012-2013 season started).
2011 Draft, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, F, 1st overall, up right away
2010 Draft, Taylor Hall, F, 1st overall, up right away
2009 Draft, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, F, 10th overall, one year in Sweden then up with Edmonton
2008 Draft, Jordan Eberle, F, 22nd overall, two years with Regina Pats, then with Edmonton
2007 Draft, Sam Gagner, F, 6th overall, up right away
2006 Draft, no 1st rounder

The Raiders have already reacted to the chance of losing Draisaitl to the NHL. They selected forward Simon Stransky, younger brother of former Blade Matej Stransky, Wednesday at the CHL Import Draft. Dale Derkatch,

Raiders director of player personnel, said that the Draisaitl situation did play a part in the Raiders selecting a forward at the Euro draft and will be prepared to play Stransky and defenceman Tomas Andrlik next year if Draisaitl does not return.

Right after the Raiders were eliminated by, oddly enough, the Edmonton Oil Kings back in April, Draisaitl gave an emotional but diplomatic response when asked if he was going to return to the Raiders next season.

“I love it here (in Prince Albert), but at the same time, I’d love to keep going and play at the next level,” said Draisaitl. “We’ll see what happens.”

Of course Draisaitl’s immediate NHL future will be determined at the Oilers’ training camp.

But with the Oilers’ history in allowing their top prospects to play in the NHL right away, the Gagner trade and MacTavish’s immediate confidence in the young centre, the Draisaitl question that hangs over the Raiders this offseason may have already been answered.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea