There’s been plenty of churn when it comes to Leon Draisaitl’s linemates. Plenty have been tried with Drasaitl. Few have triumphed.
Draisaitl will now play his first NHL game — an exhibition game tonight against Vancouver — with two new linemates, veteran NHL wingers and scorers Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner.
It looks to be something of a dream line, three strong NHL attacking forwards coming together.
But we’ll see how it goes. It’s been many years of experimentation finding wingers for Draisaitl, not always with much success.
Remember when he broke into the NHL on a line in 2015-16 with wingers like Teddy Purcell and Taylor Hall? Or found short-lived success in the 2017 playoffs with Drake Caggiula and Anton Slepyshev on his wings?
In 2020-21, Draisailt’s former minor hockey teammate Dominik Kahun was brought in to complement the NHL star, but Kahun had only nine goals in 48 games.
In the last few years, Draisailt has had various linemates, from Evander Kane, Dylan Holloway and Zach Hyman to Warren Foegele, Adam Henrique and Ryan McLeod, but he’s not been on any trio that has clicked in a big way, save for one long stretch of games in 2019-20.
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The best Draisaitl has done on any line — other than with Connor McDavid — came in his MVP 2019-20 season when he formed the DYNamite line, Draisaitl with Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Together in 318 5-on-5 minutes the trio scored 28 goals and gave up just eight. They had astonishing chemistry but, strangely, when the 2020 playoffs started up in that fractured COVID season in July, coach Dave Tippett decided to break up the threesome. In following years they were reunited now and then in games, but never again found that same magic.
Draisaitl is one of the NHL’s great attacking players, and he’s always found some magic when paired up with Connor McDavid. But it’s no easy matter playing with a centre as strong as Draisaitl is on the attack, but a centre whose defensive play has been inconsistent. Players have to be able to make plays at a high level to fit in with him, which is why Yamamoto and RNH, two excellent passers of the puck, fit in so well with him for a time. But it’s difficult to find players with that kind of offensive IQ.
On top of that, though, Drai’s wingers need to be strong on defence, able to fill in for him when he free-lances on defence as he’ll sometimes do, counting on his ability to read plays and gambling to steal the puck.
Arvidsson is a fast and tough player with a good shot, one who goes hard to the net and battles hard on the wall. Skinner is a fine skater and gifted shooter.
Skinner, 32, has 357 goals in 1006 NHL games. Arvidsson had 179 in 546, Draisaitl 347 in 719.
It’s likely that the threesome will find a way to score, but how will they get it done on defence? Will they be able to shut down the game when needed?
Here’s how Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch described the new trio today: “Obviously, Skinner is a goalscorer. Arvidsson has a little more edge to his game by getting in on the forecheck. He’s a little aggressive,” Even though he’s not big on stature, he is big on having that tenacity… There’ll be growing pains, but I think they’re good hockey players and we’re optimistic that it’ll work out.
“I think if you’ve got good players the chemistry just happens. They’ll fit in. If you look, I know I’m old enough to remember the ’87 Canada Cup, and you think about the chemistry of Lemieux and Gretzky. You know what would make those two work together. Good players find each other, they find how to make it work.”
It’s bold to invoke the chemistry of Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky when introducing an Oilers line not made up of McDavid and Draisaitl, but the hopes are evidently high here.
As I say, we’ll see. If the trio does click, however, the Oilers will have a team with its top two attacking lines of the McDavid-Draisaitl era.
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