Leon Draisaitl says the Edmonton Oilers have taken a step backwards, and Connor McDavid agrees with Leon
Sportsnet: Gene Principe and Mark Spector on the comments made by Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid during their end-of-season interviews yesterday.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Principe: “Mark, we are trending the wrong way. As I’m joined by Mark Spector, one of the I guess, like wow moments with Leon Draisaitl. What did you think of how open and honest he was about the Edmonton Oilers? ”
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Spector: “Yeah, Leon Draisaitl stole the show here today on exit interview day for the Edmonton Oilers. Absolutely no question. ‘We’re, we’ve taken a step back. We’re trending in the wrong direction. We kind of lost our fire this year.’
Uh, listen, Leon’s a straightforward cat. Okay? He doesn’t beat around the bush. He tells you what he thinks. And what this organization needed to hear today all came out of Leon Draisaitl’s mouth.
Everybody’s got to be better, including himself, as he said, but from the management to the coaching staff to all the players, to the guy that folds the towels. What they did this year was not good enough in the eyes of not just Leon Draisaitl, but the guy who came up next as well.”
Principe: “What did you think about Conor McDavid, basically echoing the thoughts of Leon? I mean, we look at these two guys as being great friends, great players, and they seem to be on the same wavelength.”
Spector: “Oh, for sure. And Conor McDavid is never going to lay it down as plainly as Draisaitl did. But what he did do was follow up every question, where we would say, Leon said this, and Conor would say, ‘Absolutely, I agree.’ He felt like this team maybe lost the feeling of this pursuit of being a great team because they’re so used to being a good one, and they lost their ability to say, ‘You know what, being good is not enough here.’
You got to do certain things. You got to take the regular season far more seriously. There’s a difference between being a good team that shows up in the playoffs and a great team that has a chance to have a parade at the end of them.”
Principe: “One other thing Conor McDavid dealt with was his contract, which is less than the length of Leon’s contract. You know, my opinion, the way I read it, is that he continues to make a commitment to Edmonton and the Oilers. Do you think there’s a ‘but’ that goes with that?”
Spector: “There’s always going to be. Just for the people out there who may not be aware, Conor McDavid has his two-year contract he signed a year ago, starts up next season. So what that means is, a year from today, he’ll have one year left, and on July 1st of 2027, the Oilers will have to either (A) sign McDavid long term, which they would love to do, or (B) make a decision, do we let him play out his contract in the second year of the deal, or and then skate?
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I’ll tell you this. The advice from this reporter will be Conor McDavid can’t do what Mitch Marner did in Toronto. If Conor McDavid is going to play two years for you here, he better be playing five or six. And if he’s only going to play one a year from now, it’s going to be a big, big conversation around here.”
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