{"id":277827,"date":"2026-04-21T02:13:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277827\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:13:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:13:22","slug":"leon-draisaitl-to-return-from-injury-for-game-1-vs-ducks-as-oilers-playoff-run-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277827\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Draisaitl to return from injury for Game 1 vs. Ducks as Oilers&#8217; playoff run begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/edmonton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Edmonton<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Leon Draisaitl, a critical piece of the Edmonton Oilers&#8217; playoff puzzle, is expected to make his return Monday night after missing more than a month of regular season play because of an injury.<\/p>\n<p>Draisaitl was hurt during a game on March 15 and missed the rest of the regular season<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776737601_159_default.jpg\" data-cy=\"author-image-img\"\/><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/author\/emily-rae-pasiuk-1.4484795\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Rae Pasiuk<\/a>  \u00b7 CBC News  \u00b7 Posted: Apr 20, 2026 9:06 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"A hockey player in a white and blue jersey skates with the puck.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776737601_104_default.jpg\" data-cy=\"leadmedia-story-img\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Edmonton Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl (29) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in Denver. (David Zalubowski\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>Leon Draisaitl, a critical piece of the Edmonton Oilers&#8217; playoff puzzle, is expected to make his return to the lineup for Game 1 against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night after missing more than a month of regular season play. <\/p>\n<p>The team&#8217;s star centre hasn&#8217;t played since March 15 because of a lower-body injury sustained in the first period of a game against the Nashville Predators. <\/p>\n<p>The Oilers confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/edmontonoilers\/status\/2046365252691054991?s=46\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">via a post on X<\/a> on Monday that Draisaitl was being &#8220;activated&#8221; ahead of Game 1 against the Ducks at Rogers Place. The prominent forward finished ninth in the NHL in points during the 2025-26 regular season.  <\/p>\n<p>Game 2 of the Oilers&#8217; opening round playoff series will be played in Edmonton on Wednesday before the series flips to Anaheim for Friday&#8217;s Game 3 and Sunday&#8217;s Game 4 at the Honda Center.  <\/p>\n<p>Draisaitl was named the winner of the Hart Trophy in 2020, which is awarded annually to the NHL player deemed to be the most valuable to their team. He was the runner-up for the award last season. <\/p>\n<p>In February, Draisaitl was Germany&#8217;s leading scorer at the Olympics with seven points in five games.  <\/p>\n<p>ABOUT THE AUTHOR<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776737602_960_default.jpg\" data-cy=\"author-image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"authorprofile-biography\">Emily Rae Pasiuk is a reporter for CBC Edmonton with a keen interest in Alberta&#8217;s energy sector, the intersection between politics and daily life, and breaking news. Emily reported in Saskatchewan for three years before moving to Edmonton in 2020. Tips? Ideas? Reach her at emily.pasiuk@cbc.ca.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"reportIssue-MwDQL\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/corrections-clarifications-1.5893564\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Corrections and clarifications<\/a>\u00b7<a class=\"reportIssue-MwDQL\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/email-cbc-contact-phone-tips-news-story-1.6466536\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Submit a news tip<\/a>\u00b7Report error<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edmonton Leon Draisaitl, a critical piece of the Edmonton Oilers&#8217; playoff puzzle, is expected to make his return&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-277827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}