{"id":435355,"date":"2026-01-24T23:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T23:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435355\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T23:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T23:02:10","slug":"personal-leave-puts-hockey-into-perspective-for-edmonton-oilers-star-leon-draisaitl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435355\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal leave puts hockey into perspective for Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014 Time away from the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> has clarified what\u2019s truly important for star forward Leon Draisaitl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old centre stepped away from the NHL team last week and returned to Germany to attend to a family illness. <\/p>\n

He missed three games, during which Edmonton went 2-1-0 and outscored their opponents 13-1.<\/p>\n

Draisaitl said the Oilers were supportive of his brief personal leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I needed to be with my family,\u201d he said on Saturday. \u201cIt puts things into perspective at times, how little this in here really matters when it comes to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six-foot-two, 209-pound sniper rejoined his teammates on Thursday after a long day of travel and logged 19:17 in ice time in Edmonton\u2019s 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He took morning skate on Saturday before the Oilers (25-19-8) hosted the Washington Capitals<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cLeon, I can\u2019t imagine what he\u2019s gone through this past week and a half,\u201d said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. \u201cYou play under the circumstances that he did, flying all day, the time change \u2026 and then playing. It would be ridiculous to think Leon would be at his best.\u201d <\/p>\n

Draisaitl has 25 goals and 42 assists over 49 games this season and sits second on the team in scoring behind Connor McDavid<\/a> (85 points).<\/p>\n

Even when Draisaitl\u2019s not at his best, he\u2019s a \u201chuge boost\u201d to the Oilers, both during five-on-five play and on the power play, Knoblauch added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely helps us in the lineup, just being there,\u201d the coach said. \u201cObviously when we\u2019re having success and the team\u2019s playing well, he\u2019s a big part of it. And we welcome him playing at his best.\u201d <\/p>\n

Winger Andrew Mangiapane<\/a> is expected to skate on a line with Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin<\/a> against the Capitals. <\/p>\n

Playing with Draisaitl is always a big opportunity, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously a talented skill player, right? So I\u2019m just trying to go in there, play my game and try to complement him and Podzi here,\u201d Mangiapane said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe just kind of got back, but, yeah, he\u2019s obviously a smart, skilled player. So get open, he\u2019ll find you. And just try to play your game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers head into Saturday\u2019s matchup sitting second in the Pacific Division, four points behind the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Draisaitl said he wasn\u2019t watching the team \u201cshift by shift\u201d while in Germany, but knows the group needs to find some consistency over their next six games ahead of the Olympic break. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast game obviously wasn\u2019t our best,\u201d he said. \u201dIt\u2019s important to find our game here before the break.\u201d <\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2026. <\/p>\n

Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 Time away from the Edmonton Oilers has clarified what\u2019s truly important for star forward Leon Draisaitl.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-435355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}