EDMONTON, AB – Head Coach Kris Knoblauch updated the status of several Oilers players following practice at the Downtown Community Arena on Friday afternoon, most notably that of captain Connor McDavid and leading scorer Leon Draisaitl.
Knoblauch said that both McDavid and Draisaitl are expected to be unavailable for Saturday’s meeting with the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place and could miss around a week of time due to injury, leaving the Oilers without two of their superstars for potentially up to four games or more until the start of the team’s four-game road trip that begins Mar. 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Connor’s got a doctor’s appointment today just see how long it’s going to be, and we’re not anticipating him playing for tomorrow for sure,” Knoblauch said. “I would say day-to-day, maybe a week. We’ll find out more today.”
“Same kind of timeline [for Draisaitl],” Knoblauch added. “Won’t be back immediately. He’ll be probably up to a week.”
McDavid was ruled out for the third period and overtime of Thursday’s 4-3 overtime defeat to the Winnipeg Jets after taking a cross-check to the midsection from defenceman Josh Morrissey late in the second period and looking to be in discomfort immediately after the play. The captain will undergo an MRI on Friday to further understand the extent of his injury and evaluate an appropriate timeline of recovery.
Draisaitl was deemed doubtful to play against the Jets from a collision he sustained with Utah defenceman Olli Määttä at the blueline during the middle frame of Edmonton’s 7-1 victory over the Hockey Club on Tuesday.
Despite playing through his ailment and finishing with 22:23 of ice time in the victory, seeing his 18-game point streak come to an end and sitting one goal away from reaching 50 for the season, the injury became more of a concern for the coaching staff the next day and will be enough to keep the German forward out for more than just Thursday’s game.
“Our training staff was checking in with him regularly. Leon has played through a lot,” Knoblauch said. “There was talk about how he’s doing and if he could go through it or should he be sitting out, and then the next day, they re-evaluated and figured out it was more than they anticipated.”
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