DRAISAITL’S EMERGENCE STARTED IN ‘NHL ROOM’
From Prince Albert to Edmonton, Oilers star continues to grow, adapt
There are two rooms available for boarding in Carole Ring ’s home in Prince Albert, Sask. But the players who live there for the hockey season only refer to one of them as the “NHL room.”
Not that anyone can tell them apart.
There’s no trophies, no pictures, no memorabilia of any kind to distinguish one room from the next. Each has a bed, a dresser and a mirror, plus room for a desk. But the kids who come here know that one of the two rooms is not just any room. Hockey royalty once lodged within these four walls.
More than once.
Carole and her late husband, Ralph, have billeted players with the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders on and off since the team’s inception in 1971. At last count, 38 players have temporarily spent a season or more at the home. For some, it was their last stop before giving up competitive hockey for good.
For others, living at the Ring residence was a springboard to greatness.
In 1986, a skinny kid from Livonia, Mich., moved into what would later become the “NHL room.” Ring took one look at him and thought, “there’s no way this 16-year-old American kid is going to last the season.”
His name was Mike Modano. He not only lasted the season, but ended up staying for three.
Immediately after Modano left for the NHL, where he was a No. 1 pick and later a Hall of Fame forward who still ranks second among Americans in all-time scoring, Dean Mcammond moved in and stayed for four years. Dean wasn’t a star like Modano, but he was drafted 22nd overall and played almost 1,000 games in the NHL.
From then on, the room became legendary. Players fought over who got to sleep there. In some ways, it was their first taste of negotiating.
So when this big German kid arrived to Ring’s home in 2012, he put down his bags and then asked in accented English: “which one is the NHL room?”
“I knew about it for sure,” Leon Draisaitl said. “It was really cool. I got to meet him (Modano) when the team retired his jersey.”
Sleeping in the same room as Modano and Mcammond is not the reason Draisaitl, who after scoring 50 goals and 105 points for the Edmonton Oilers last season, is now challenging for the Art Ross and Hart Trophies this year. But his decision to come to Prince Albert and play in the WHL is a window into how the Edmonton Oilers forward has become the star player he is today.
For one, it forced him onto a smaller ice surface, where the play is more physical. More importantly, a player who started out as a pass-first playmaker was forced to adapt and learned to snipe goals at will.
“He was probably the most focused kid I ever had,” said
Ring, a retired court stenographer. “There was never any doubt in his mind that he wasn’t going to make the NHL. He used to drive me crazy because every time I turned around there would be a hockey game on. I would turn it to a program that I wanted, but once I turned around he would grab the remote and change it back to hockey.”
To his credit, it’s not like he had many other entertainment options.
Draisaitl was born in Cologne, the fourth-largest city in Germany. Google it and you’ll get advice for “25 things to do,” which include everything from visiting the many museums to going on a perfume tour where Eau de Cologne was invented.
There are not 25 things to do in Prince Albert. If there are, most of them revolve around hockey.
“We’re it,” Ring said. “North of us is lakes and bush and animals. The one major town is almost three hours from here. And it’s a population of 4,000.”
How did Draisaitl end up in Prince Albert? Well, it wasn’t exactly his choice.
Draisaitl wanted to play in Canada, where he would be challenged more and seen by more scouts than if he stayed in Germany, but he did not necessarily want to play in the Western Hockey League, which is considered by far the more physical of the three major junior hockey leagues. But his fate was sealed once the Raiders selected him with the second overall pick in the Canadian Hockey League’s import draft, behind Russia’s Ivan Barbashev, who went to Moncton, N.B.
(In an odd twist of fate, the Erie Otters had the third overall pick, which meant had Prince Albert passed on Draisaitl, he might have played alongside Connor Mcdavid as a junior).
“We took a wild gamble,” said then-gm Bruno Campese. “We knew that he wanted to come over, so it was just a matter of whether we could convince him to come out west. It took the whole summer. They weren’t really enthralled in coming to the Western league at first.”
By the end of the summer, Campese ended up flying to Cologne to meet with Draisaitl and his family for one last shot at signing him. It helped that he had played as a goalie against Draisaitl’s father in the German league and knew the style of game Draisaitl had grown up playing.
“It took a little bit of convincing,” Draisaitl said. “Obviously, it was a big step in my career. I wanted it to be right. I took my time with that. But Bruno was awesome. He made a big effort
(to sell Draisaitl on playing in Prince Albert).”
Draisaitl scored 58 points in 64 games in 2012-13, finishing third among rookies in scoring. It wasn’t the type of start that signalled greatness.
“The German league isn’t as strong as it is here, so it’s hard to gauge how good he was,” said Cory Clouston, who coached Draisaitl during his second year in Prince Albert. “There was a lot of hype. He had respectable numbers in his first year. Nothing special. I’m not going to say I knew he’d be leading the NHL in scoring.”
That changed in his second year. Maybe it took him a year to become comfortable in Saskatchewan. Maybe he needed some time to adapt to the smaller ice surface and the more physical play of the league. Whatever the reasons, Draisaitl scored 105 points in 64 games for the Raiders, finishing fourth in league scoring.
“The biggest thing with Draisaitl was his vision,” said North American Central Scouting’s Mark Seidel. “Poise was a word I used a lot. He never seemed to get flustered.”
The Edmonton Oilers selected Draisaitl with the No. 3 pick, behind Florida’s Aaron Ekblad and Buffalo’s Sam Reinhart. In terms of misses, Draisaitl slipping to third overall isn’t the same as Boston’s David Pastrnak falling to the 25th pick or Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point and Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson having to wait until the third and fourth round, respectively, to be selected. But it’s likely the draft order would look a lot different if it were done over.
A lot of that has to do with the players involved.
When Draisaitl was selected, scouts compared him to Joe Thornton because of his size, vision and uncanny passing ability. Today, after forming a 1-2 punch with Mcdavid, he’s looking more like Evgeni Malkin or Jari Kurri. He has become one of the league’s top goal-scorers.
That’s by necessity. Playing with Mcdavid has forced Draisaitl to adapt his game. He knows Mcdavid likes to pass the puck just as much as he does, so Draisaitl has learned to shoot.
In 2017-18, Draisaitl scored 25 goals. A year later, he doubled that total.
“My shooting and goal scoring has been a process. It’s been working of late,” he said. “(Mcdavid) likes to pass. He’s good at finding people. That plays a little role. So I tried to be more unpredictable for my opponent.”
In some ways, playing alongside Mcdavid has been a blessing. But it has also kept Draisaitl from receiving full credit for just how important he’s been to Edmonton’s success this season. It’s the same thing Malkin goes through as Sidney Crosby’s teammate.
Not that Draisaitl is complaining.
While the two players remain neck and neck in the Art Ross Trophy race, Draisaitl does not characterize it as a competition. He’s happy to be in the shadows, happy to be passed up for individual awards, just as long as the team is winning games.
“We both know where we’re (in the scoring race) but neither one of us pays too much attention to it,” said Draisaitl. “We’re competitive, but never in a way where we don’t want the other guy to score or get an assist. We like when the other guy scores.”
There was a lot of hype. He had respectable numbers in his first year. Nothing special. I’m not going to say I knew he’d be leading the NHL in scoring.
Back at Carole Ring’s home in Prince Albert, Sask., the NHL room is getting more notoriety by the day.
Enough time has passed where the kids staying in the house don’t refer to it as Modano’s or Mcammond’s bedroom. That was a long time ago. Now, it’s Leon’s room. And by the sound of it, its luck is rubbing off on the next generation.
“I’ve got one player who’s in there now and he’s come out really well this year,” Ring said. “He hasn’t been looked at by the NHL, but who knows.”
For Draisaitl, it was more than just a room. It was a springboard to the NHL.
“There’s pros and cons wherever you play,” Draisaitl said. “I thought it was best for me to play in Canada.
“I think in the long run it helped me.”