{"id":169933,"date":"2025-09-26T05:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169933\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T05:26:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:26:21","slug":"mcdavid-draisaitl-expected-to-open-season-on-same-line-for-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169933\/","title":{"rendered":"McDavid, Draisaitl expected to open season on same line for Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON — Connor McDavid<\/a> and Leon Draisaitl<\/a> are expected play on the same line when the Edmonton Oilers open the season against the Calgary Flames at Rogers Place on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n

With forward Zach Hyman<\/a> still recovering from a wrist injury<\/a> sustained in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said Tuesday the two star forwards will likely play on the No. 1 line together to start the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what our plan is right now, but obviously that can change,\u201d Knoblauch said Tuesday before the Oilers traveled to Winnipeg to face the Jets in a preseason game, a 3-2 win. \u201cWe want to see what we have from everybody else, we want so see how guys mesh, and without Hyman we\u2019re kind of maybe a little slim on having top-six winger talent, and then you kind of have pieces and maybe you have two lines (third and fourth) that you don\u2019t really like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draisaitl had 106 points (52 goals, 54 assists) in 71 games and McDavid had 100 points (26 goals, 74 assists) in 67 games last season. The two have played together often over the past 10 seasons and are also effective centering their own lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for the most part, we can split them, or we can play them together,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cI think one thing when they are playing together, you get a lot more out of the rest of the three lines. That might sound a bit ironic, but the others get more ice time that is available when those two are playing 21 and 22 minutes (apart), there isn\u2019t much ice time left for the third and fourth lines and often they feel left out.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDavid and Draisaitl made their preseason debuts in a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place on Wednesday. Forward Trent Frederic<\/a> took Hyman\u2019s spot on the top line alongside the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done this for 10 or 11 years now; it\u2019s going to switch, it\u2019s going to go back and forth,\u201d Draisaitl said after the morning skate Wednesday. \u201cI do think it\u2019s easier to coach for him (Knoblauch) when we\u2019re together to coach the bench. We\u2019ve done this for so long, we know exactly how to flip flop back and forth if we\u2019re together or apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously always excited to play with him. It\u2019s always a pleasure to be on the same line as him, so we\u2019ll see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyman has been a fixture alongside McDavid since signing as a free agent in Edmonton prior to the 2021-22 season. He had 44 points (27 goals, 17 assists) in 73 games last season, and 77 points (54 goals, 23 assists) in 80 games in 2023-24. Hyman is expected to miss at least a month after dislocating his wrist on a hit from Dallas Stars forward Mason Marchment<\/a> on May 27. Hyman had surgery and missed the remainder of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Edmonton defeated Dallas in five games and lost to the Florida Panthers in the Final in six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see how long it last or how the rest of the lines shape up,\u201d Draisaitl said. \u201cThere\u2019s some openings for guys to step in and grab it and take it and that\u2019s what you\u2019re looking for guys to push for that role or for [Hyman\u2019s] role while he\u2019s gone, so it\u2019s always exciting to see how the team shapes up at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

By playing McDavid and Draisaitl together to start the season, Knoblauch also hopes to get a better read on the rest of the forward group. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins<\/a> will center the second line and preseason will determine who will join him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know when I have Connor and Leon together you definitely have a line that you like no matter who else is on that line,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re trying [Frederic] and it might be somebody else, but you know it\u2019ll work, no matter who they\u2019re with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knoblauch said lining up beside McDavid or Draisaitl can sometimes take a player out of his comfort zone and keeping the two star players together takes some pressure off the rest of the forward group. The Oilers have a handful of new forwards competing for a spot on the roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy playing Connor and Leon together, the other guys play to their identity I find that maybe you get more out of them,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cWe saw it last year with Nugent-Hopkins when he was playing with [Viktor] Arvidsson and [Vasily] Podkolzin, they were putting up as much offense individually, just that they were able to play their game a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON — Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are expected play on the same line when the Edmonton Oilers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-169933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}