Edmonton— Leon Draisaitl topped Stu MacGregor’s wish list for the Edmonton Oilers with the third pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, but the Oilers had to wait to see if the Buffalo Sabers passed him at No. 2.
MacGregor, the Oilers’ director of scouting at the time, had seen Draisaitl up close during his youth days with Prince Albert of the Western Hockey League and, along with general manager Craig MacTavish, decided the Cologne, Germany native , was the most talented forward available that year.
“For us, ‘Mac’ wanted a forward; We had taken (defenseman) Darnell Nurse the year before in the first round and we wanted to get a good forward that year,” MacGregor said. “He was just a big, powerful guy with big hands who could really handle the puck, control it and hold it. I don’t know if he’s ever seen a guy make plays with his backhand and receive pucks with his backhand like he did. He made incredible plays with the backhand puck.”
Draisaitl scored 105 points (38 goals, 67 assists) in 64 games for Prince Albert in his 2013-2014 draft season. The season before, when he was 17, Draisaitl scored 58 points (21 goals, 37 assists) in 64 games with Prince Albert.
“His shot was good, but I think he’s really developed since his draft year,” MacGregor said. “He shot it well, but in my opinion, he was more of a setup man in those days when he was coming up through the youth ranks. We wanted a forward and it was between him or Sam Reinhart. “We had Leon ranked ahead of Reinhart, but we picked No. 3 and had to see what Buffalo was going to do.”
Buffalo selected Reinhart, who is now with the Florida Panthers and making a big contribution to their 2024 Stanley Cup playoff run.
Draisaitl, however, reached another level. He has more points than any other player taken in the 2014 draft with 850 (347 goals, 503 assists) in 719 regular season games, ahead of Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak, who was selected 25th overall and has 727 points (348 goals, 379 assists) in 674 games.
“I met with him (MacGregor) a couple of times and had the usual pre-draft conversations,” Draisaitl said. “I had the feeling that he was pretty high on their list and as he progressed, he became more serious and you could tell they liked him as a player, and I had a lot of conversations with him.”
Draisaitl has five 100-plus point seasons and scored at least 50 goals three times with the Oilers. He won the Art Ross Trophy as the League’s top scorer in 2020 with 110 points (43 goals, 67 assists) in 71 games and won the Hart Trophy as most valuable player and the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding players as voted by his teammates. that season.
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