Draisaitl didn't hold back in Edmonton Oilers end-of-season presser: 'We have two years'
Leon Draisaitl was not afraid to speak his mind in his Edmonton Oilers end-of-season availability on Saturday.
The German superstar was visibly disappointed in the team’s first-round exit at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks. After two straight Stanley Cup appearances, the Oilers will now get a longer-than-usual offseason to cope with the loss.
It was a series that Edmonton was expected to win, as they entered as both the higher-seeded team and the more experienced group. Yet, a combination of injuries and lacklustre play eventually led to the Oilers’ downfall and their shortest playoff run in five seasons.
Draisaitl didn’t mince words when asked about the disappointment of the season.
“I am concerned because we’re not trending in the right direction,” Draisaitl said. “We’ve taken big steps backwards, and we gotta get a grip of this and head back in the right direction.”
"We're not going into games or series thinking this is a walk in the park. You never think like that as an athlete. But maybe we lost a little bit of that fire that we had the last two years."
Leon Draisaitl reflects on the #Oilers season.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/kZ7IhQmULv
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 2, 2026
It’s clear that this early exit bothers Draisaitl. He’s a player who has committed his long-term future to the Oilers, and he did that so he could be a part of a winning franchise. That isn’t exactly the case with his teammate and close friend, Connor McDavid.
The Oilers captain has just two years left on his next deal with Edmonton and could realistically leave in free agency after it comes up. That adds a whole new sense of urgency for both the Oilers as a franchise and Draisaitl as well.
“In what world do you have the best player in the world on your team and you’re not looking to win?” Draisaitl said. “I know we’re looking to win, but we need to be better, we have to be better, there’s no way around it. We have to improve.
“He’s signed for two more years, and God knows where that goes, but we have two years as of right now. We have two years, and we have to be significantly better.”
The fallout of this kind of early exit is still to be seen for the Oilers. There is already speculation circling the likes of head coach Kris Knoblauch and GM Stan Bowman. Draisaitl wasn’t about to throw anybody under the bus for the disappointment, but he did provide his perspective on the coaching staff this season.
Again, it was a surprisingly honest answer that you don’t often see from players.
“I don’t like singling out anyone,” Draisaitl said. “I think our group took a step back, and I think the same thing about our coaching and our management. I think the whole organization, we took a step back, and that needs to be fixed.”
A lot of the discourse around Edmonton this year has focused on this team looking tired. Potentially due to the fact that they’ve played so much hockey over the past four seasons. Every time it’s been brought up, the players refuse to use that as an excuse.
Yet, when Draisaitl was asked, he provided a more nuanced answer to the idea that a longer offseason may help this team recharge and get back to more consistent hockey.
“It’s hard sitting here. I wanna be playing right now,” Draisaitl said. “But sometimes, you know, there is a point in time, I think, where you take the positives out of this situation. I think for us as a group, maybe it is good to take two weeks off from training.
“The last two seasons, everybody took seven days off working out, and then you’re back in the gym. That’s not a lot of time. Maybe it might be beneficial for everybody to get away from it for a little time and get a little extra rest.”
It’s not every day that you get a player of the calibre of Draisaitl to be as forthright and honest as he was during this presser. Honestly, it felt as if he were a head coach fielding questions rather than a player with the depth of his answers.
Times are tough in Edmonton, and the pressure to win has never been higher. Draisaitl knows that, and you can bet that urgency will be evident from the start of training camp come September.