Edmonton Oilers coach circles likely date for McDavid-Draisaitl preseason debut
Edmonton Oilers fans are anxiously awaiting Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to get into a preseason game, and it sounds like they won’t have to wait much longer.
It was far from the most star-studded roster the Oilers are capable of on Sunday night. The team played in a pair of split-squad games against the Calgary Flames, but held out the majority of their impact players for both matches.
Though they iced two separate lineups, there was no McDavid, Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, or Zach Hyman to be seen. Even newcomer Andrew Mangiapane was held out of the preseason openers.
Instead, fans got a chance to watch an array of bottom-six players alongside NHL hopefuls and prospects. For fans buying tickets to these games, it can be a bit of a letdown, but it appears at least some of those stars will be making their season debut later this week.
Following Edmonton’s 3-2 OT loss in the Alberta capital on Sunday night, Knoblauch circled a likely date for McDavid and Draisaitl to get back into the lineup.
“[You’ll] probably see our top guys playing in our first exhibition game at home,” Knoblauch said.
"You're trying to get the guys to work hard, skate & play with a lot of pace… You're trying to get them familiar with the systems."
Coach Knoblauch on what he aimed to extract from game one of the #Oilers preseason.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/u45y9EDUEr
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) September 22, 2025
On the surface, that may seem like a confusing comment. After all, he said this directly after the team’s first preseason game at Rogers Place… so what does this mean?
Likely, he didn’t view this split-squad game as a true exhibition game since the Oilers also had another team playing in Calgary at the same time. Edmonton is set to go on the road on Tuesday for a game against the Winnipeg Jets and then return to Rogers Place on Wednesday for a matchup against the Seattle Kraken.
That will be the team’s first actual preseason game on home ice and is almost certainly what Knoblauch was referring to. So, if we are to take the Oilers head coach at his word, at least one of McDavid or Draisaitl (potentially both) should get their first taste of the new NHL season on Wednesday night against the Kraken.
Tickets for that game are currently going for as low as $26 on Ticketmaster.