Leon Draisaitl’s building his case to become one of the best NHL playoff performers of all-time

Each year when the playoffs begin, we are reminded of just how different the action becomes from the regular season style of play we have grown accustomed to. There is a visible change of intensity, a palpable change in atmosphere, a certain nervous intensity that fills the very hearts and minds of fans and players alike. 

Each and every inch of ice becomes more contested, each play more difficult to make, each challenger farther to reach. This reality makes the game, and the judgment thereof, steeper, more binary. There is a win and a loss, not much else. 

Everything is more difficult in the playoffs, making the rare commodity of playoff excellence the signifier of a truly elite stratosphere. It is this context that gives gravity to the fact that there is no one currently in the NHL that has a playoff resume quite like the Edmonton Oilers’ own Leon Draisaitl.

Draisaitl’s impact goes unmatched

During his day job as a top-scoring forward, Draisaitl occupies an interesting space in the collective psyche of NHL fans. Having won the Hart Trophy in 2020 as the league’s MVP, Draisaitl is in rarefied air already. Seemingly, finishing second in league scoring nearly every year has done little to earn Draisaitl much recognition as someone who might be the best player in the league after teammate Connor McDavid.

While the regular season stats are impressive, they fall short of explaining Draisaitl’s greatness. One of the league’s most accurate shooters, Draisaitl is always near the league lead in goals, scoring from audacious angles that most players would not dare attempt.

As one of the league’s best passers, Draisaitl has a distinct style, often firing cross ice passes from his backhand with tremendous velocity. Strong and powerful enough to outmuscle opponents, Draisaitl does it all with a strange stylistic contrast to his MVP teammate McDavid.

Where McDavid exudes ferocious speed in everything he does, Draisaitl operates in relative slow motion, bamboozling opponents with patience, slow, methodical sleight of hand. Despite how they both play at a level higher than most of the league, it is entirely possible to tell the difference between McDavid and Draisaitl based on their movement alone. 

Draisaitl more than belongs in this stratosphere, thought of amongst the best in the league. With other powerful centres, Draisaitl is mentioned in the same breath—that with Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews, etc.—but Draisaitl has something that sets him apart from his cohorts here, even from McDavid himself: a level of playoff excellence, another gear. 

Playoff dominance from Draisaitl 

As much as Draisaitl punches in as a top player in the regular season, the moonlighting he does in the playoffs is a step beyond. Take a look at this chart showing the top players all time by playoff points per game with a minimum of 50 points.

Name	Pos	GP	G	A	P	G/GP	A/GP	Playoff P/GP	Regular P/GP	PPG Difference
Wayne Gretzky	F	208	122	260	382	0.587	1.25	1.837	1.921	-0.084
Leon Draisaitl	F	39	21	43	64	0.538	1.103	1.641	1.166	0.475
Mario Lemieux	F	107	76	96	172	0.71	0.897	1.607	1.883	-0.276
Barry Pederson	F	34	22	30	52	0.647	0.882	1.529	0.933	0.596
Connor McDavid	F	39	21	35	56	0.538	0.897	1.436	1.494	-0.058
Nathan MacKinnon	F	71	41	53	94	0.577	0.746	1.324	1.071	0.253
Mark Messier	F	236	109	186	295	0.462	0.788	1.25	1.075	0.175
Bobby Orr	D	74	26	66	92	0.351	0.892	1.243	1.393	-0.15
Mike Bossy	F	129	85	75	160	0.659	0.581	1.24	1.497	-0.257
Mikko Rantanen	F	64	24	54	78	0.375	0.844	1.219	1.047	0.172
Jari Kurri	F	200	106	127	233	0.53	0.635	1.165	1.118	0.047
Nikita Kucherov	F	137	53	104	157	0.387	0.759	1.146	1.132	0.014
Gilbert Perreault	F	90	33	70	103	0.367	0.778	1.144	1.113	0.031
Peter Forsberg	F	151	64	107	171	0.424	0.709	1.132	1.25	-0.118
Peter Stastny	F	93	33	72	105	0.355	0.774	1.129	1.268	-0.139
Sidney Crosby	F	180	71	130	201	0.394	0.722	1.117	1.262	-0.145
Bernie Federko	F	91	35	66	101	0.385	0.725	1.11	1.13	-0.02
Pavel Bure	F	64	35	35	70	0.547	0.547	1.094	1.11	-0.016
Joe Sakic	F	172	84	104	188	0.488	0.605	1.093	1.191	-0.098
Jean Beliveau	F	162	79	97	176	0.488	0.599	1.086	1.084	0.002
Bobby Hull	F	119	62	67	129	0.521	0.563	1.084	1.101	-0.017
Eric Lindros	F	53	24	33	57	0.453	0.623	1.075	1.138	-0.063
Cale Makar	D	56	15	45	60	0.268	0.804	1.071	1.034	0.037
Toe Blake	F	58	25	37	62	0.431	0.638	1.069	0.917	0.152
Ken Linseman	F	113	43	77	120	0.381	0.681	1.062	0.938	0.124
Phil Esposito	F	130	61	76	137	0.469	0.585	1.054	1.24	-0.186
Guy Lafleur	F	128	58	76	134	0.453	0.594	1.047	1.202	-0.155
David Pastrnak	F	72	31	44	75	0.431	0.611	1.042	1.042	0
Brayden Point	F	77	40	40	80	0.519	0.519	1.039	0.928	0.111
Denis Savard	F	169	66	109	175	0.391	0.645	1.036	1.119	-0.083
Doug Gilmour	F	182	60	128	188	0.33	0.703	1.033	0.959	0.074
Kevin Stevens	F	103	46	60	106	0.447	0.583	1.029	0.831	0.198
Theoren Fleury	F	77	34	45	79	0.442	0.584	1.026	1.004	0.022
Dale Hawerchuk	F	97	30	69	99	0.309	0.711	1.021	1.186	-0.165
Brian Leetch	D	95	28	69	97	0.295	0.726	1.021	0.853	0.168
Gordie Howe	F	157	68	92	160	0.433	0.586	1.019	1.047	-0.028
Evgeni Malkin	F	177	67	113	180	0.379	0.638	1.017	1.156	-0.139
Craig Simpson	F	67	36	32	68	0.537	0.478	1.015	0.784	0.231
Paul Coffey	D	194	59	137	196	0.304	0.706	1.01	1.087	-0.077
Jake Guentzel	F	58	34	24	58	0.586	0.414	1	0.914	0.086
Steve Shutt	F	99	50	48	98	0.505	0.485	0.99	0.878	0.112
Steve Payne	F	71	35	35	70	0.493	0.493	0.986	0.76	0.226
Darryl Sittler	F	76	29	45	74	0.382	0.592	0.974	1.023	-0.049
Patrick Kane	F	137	52	81	133	0.38	0.591	0.971	1.048	-0.077
Gabriel Landeskog	F	69	27	40	67	0.391	0.58	0.971	0.774	0.197
Stan Mikita	F	155	59	91	150	0.381	0.587	0.968	1.051	-0.083
Jaromír Jágr	F	208	78	123	201	0.375	0.591	0.966	1.108	-0.142
Bernie Nicholls	F	118	42	72	114	0.356	0.61	0.966	1.073	-0.107
Sergei Fedorov	F	183	52	124	176	0.284	0.678	0.962	0.945	0.017
Ryan Getzlaf	F	125	37	83	120	0.296	0.664	0.96	0.881	0.079

While there is more to on-ice contributions than scoring, evidenced clearly by first round opponent Philip Danault, Draisaitl being ranked second outright, sandwiched between Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, is absurd in its own right. Perhaps even more impressive is the rate at which Draisaitl’s point production increases in the playoffs, jumping by over half a point per game, the highest of all the players on this list.

While the sample size is relatively small, with Oilers fans hopeful that McDavid and Draisaitl will add many more playoff games to their resumes, Draisaitl has enough playoff games under his belt for us to take these numbers seriously. Perhaps Draisaitl’s numbers here will wane over time, with more playoff appearances in his later years, but his results so far are beyond question.

Progress towards the final goal

All that is missing is the watershed moment of a Stanley Cup win—the ultimate goal of course—but Draisaitl has done a meaningful amount of work towards building a resume worthy of being called the best clutch performer in NHL history.

While the Oilers find themselves in a tight checking battle against the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of this season’s playoffs, it is Draisaitl once again who is leading the offensive charge. The work is just beginning, but while it has been McDavid pushing the likes of Gretzky in the regular season, it is Draisaitl doing so in the playoffs.

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Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire