Leon Draisaitl Says Oilers Must Get Significantly Better After Loss
Leon Draisaitl said he is concerned about the Edmonton Oilers' direction after a six-game series loss to the Anaheim Ducks. The forward said the group has to get significantly better after a season that ended without a Stanley Cup once again.
Draisaitl Pushes For More
“I am concerned about that,” Draisaitl said at his end-of-season media conference. He then pointed directly at the standard inside the room: “How do you have the best player in the world and you are not looking to win? We have to be better. We have to improve. He’s signed for two more years, and God knows where that goes, but we have two years here right now. We have to get significantly better.”
The comments landed after the Oilers were eliminated in six games by Anaheim. For Edmonton, the loss extended a run that has not produced a Stanley Cup during Connor McDavid's career, leaving one of the league's most productive cores still chasing the same ending.
McDavid And Bowman
McDavid backed Draisaitl's read on the season. He agreed the team was not good enough and said the organization as a whole took a step back. That is the sharpest public sign yet that the frustration runs through the top of the roster, not just through one postgame reaction.
Stan Bowman gave his own blunt assessment when asked about McDavid calling the team average. “We were average for a lot of the year,” Bowman said. The general manager also would not confirm that Kris Knoblauch would be back as head coach next season, even with Knoblauch present at the year-end media availability.
Edmonton's Margin For Error
Edmonton's problems went beyond the final series result. The club has struggled to find reliable goaltending and to fill out the depth properly, two issues that kept showing up across the year. Those gaps left little room for the top players to carry the load alone.
The next stretch for the Oilers now runs through decisions at the top of the hockey operations chain and on the bench. Draisaitl's warning, McDavid's agreement and Bowman's review all point in the same direction: the standard inside the room is no longer about being close, but about changing the roster and the results that followed from it.
