Leon Draisaitl became the first Raider ever to win the Art Ross Trophy. File photo/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

The King of Leon

Leon Draisaitl puts his name in the Raider record books

May 27, 2020 | 2:39 PM

Leon Draisaitl continues to blaze trails as his NHL career is only starting to heat up.

Draisaitl became the first-ever German-born player and first Prince Albert Raiders alumnus to win the NHL Art Ross Trophy—awarded each year to the player that scores the most points in the NHL regular season.

Since the NHL decided to end their regular season prematurely due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and go forward with its 24-team playoff plan, that meant that no other player in the NHL had time to catch up to Draisaitl.

Despite the COVID-19 shortened season, the ‘Deutschland Dangler’ still ended up with 110 points in 71 games, 13 more than fellow Edmonton Oiler standout Connor McDavid and 15 more than every other player in the NHL.

To see how big of a deal that is, Draisaitl’s 110 points are more than every other winner going back to the 2012-13 NHL lockout with one exception—Nikita Kucherov’s outstanding 128-point year in 2018-19. Draisaitl would have been close to that, as he was on pace to score 127 points for a full 82-game season (1.549 points per game through all of the Oilers’ 71 games this year).

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Just to look at how impressive Draisaitl’s achievement is, all you have to do is look at all the Raider greats throughout the years and see that none of them were able to do what 24-year-old Draisaitl has already done in his young, six-year NHL career.

Among them is Mike Modano, a first-ballot Hall of Famer and arguably the best American-born player when he retired from hockey in 2011. He played his junior hockey in Prince Albert with the Raiders and his No. 9 jersey became the first Raider sweater to be retired into the dark wooden rafters of the Art Hauser Centre. Modano may have scored 1,374 points in his NHL career and won the Stanley Cup in 1999… but he never won the Art Ross in any of his 21 seasons.

Draisaitl becoming a Raider

It was very much in doubt that he would become a Raider. In anticipation of the 2012 CHL Import Draft, Draisaitl was highly-touted and poised to be one of the first picks. Then-Raiders general manager Bruno Campese took a big risk and drafted Neon Leon second overall, despite concerns that Draisaitl would not report to little old Prince Albert.

To make sure that Draisaitl would report, Campese literally flew all the way over to Germany and talked to the Draisaitl family in their hometown of Cologne, selling the Raiders’ program and the community of Prince Albert. The sales pitch worked as Draisaitl played a pair of seasons with the Raiders. He put up 58 points in his rookie campaign in 2012-13, but really took off in his second year with the Raiders.

Draisaitl scored 105 points in the 2013-14 season, piling up 38 goals and 67 assists in 64 games played. No Raider has broken the 100-point total since, with Reid Gardiner becoming the closest Raider to reach that with 92 points (43 goals) in 71 games played in 2015-16.

That season, Draisaitl became the first Raider to break the 100-point milestone since Steve Kelly did so in the 1995-96 season (101 points). You’d have to go back to the 1993-94 season to find a Raider that had scored more in a single year, with Van Burgess getting 111 points.

Draisaitl was traded to the Kelowna Rockets halfway through his third season. He’s also the first German-born player to win the Art Ross, and first WHL alumni since former Rocket Jamie Benn did so in the 2014-15 season.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW