Oilers' Draisaitl says he's 'misunderstood,' but he's working on it

EDMONTON — “I think it looks fantastic.” 

Leon Draisaitl is on your TV, standing in some random guy’s kitchen. He’s holding a takeout carton and wearing a hideous orange tarp. 

It’s a Skip The Dishes commercial, written to create a goofy vibe around a couple of hockey fans who apparently never learned what a napkin is — but hang around and eat chicken wings with the one of hockey’s best players. 

Between that spot, and the betting ad he does with former NHLer Chris Pronger and current Maple Leaf Mitch Marner, Draisaitl has been on our screens more often of late than his Sudbury, Ont.-born girlfriend, actor Celeste Desjardins. 

Who’s the best actor in the house? 

“She would definitely have a little more talent in that regard,” he says. “It was easier than I thought, actually. It was fun. 

“There was a lot of fun stuff going on between the takes.” 

If you’re having a hard time picturing Draisaitl yucking it up on set with a couple of commercial actors, or matching personalities with the outgoing Pronger, we get it. 

He gets it too, actually. 

“I think I’m a bit misunderstood,” Draisaitl says, now 28 years old and mature enough to have a better picture of what’s going on around him. 

What does that mean? 

For Draisaitl, you won’t be surprised to learn that it boils down to body language. 

“I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I'm an intense guy, and sometimes when things don't go the way I like, I show that. Sometimes maybe a little bit too much,” he says. “I spend a lot of time working on that part of my life — as a leader and as a player. 

“If people think that I'm not aware of my body language, then they're certainly wrong.” 

And how is that work going? 

“I’ve gotten better,” he says. “I care a lot, and I guess I’m a bit of a perfectionist.” 

His teammates solved Draisaitl, long before he went one-legged through the 2022 playoffs. Before he became the Oiler “Most Likely To Call Out a Bad Passer.” 

“He's a straight shooter, and in today's day and age people don't always accept him the way (his words are intended),” says long-time teammate Darnell Nurse.  “When he sees things that we can work on and be better at, he's expressing that. He's not just holding it in, or saying, ‘Oh, we can be better.’ He's expressing the ways that we can be better.” 

It is the German way to be direct — to not beat around the bush — Draisaitl admits. 

“I'm obviously very direct in the way I deliver certain things. But it's never personal,” he says. “Maybe early in my career, that was also a little bit misunderstood. Like, whatever I do, I do it with emotion. I wear it on my sleeve — but it's never personal. 

“Once I'm away from the rink, I don't hold a grudge. I don't work like that.” 

One quality that behooves Draisaitl is his utter acceptance that he will always play some version of a second fiddle to teammate and captain Connor McDavid. He’s the one who brings it up, to accept it, and to venture that perhaps that is also why the hockey establishment often lists stars such as Auston Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon ahead of him as well.

Even though he annually finishes ahead of both in points. 

“Does it bother me? No. Do I compare myself to those guys? Of course, that’s the category I would put myself in,” Draisaitl says, with Matthews rolling into Edmonton with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night (9 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet+ Regional restrictions apply). 

“Naturally, being behind Connor, you will always be the second guy that gets talked about. That's just the way it is, and it’s always going to be that way. I have no problem with that,” he says. “If you're talking about Matthews and MacKinnon, are there nights where I'm better than them? Yes. 

“Are there nights where they're better than me? Yes.” 

He’ll tell you pretty much anything you want to know. All you’ve got to do with Leon is ask him a straightforward question, without being too wordy. 

Question: “Would you say ‘It’s Cup or bust,’ again, the way you did after the Oilers lost out last spring?” 

“No, I would not say that again,” he says. “Out of emotions, that came out in the moment. You’ve got to be careful. This league is too hard, too competitive, to act as if we're entitled to win. 

“Like, for sure we want to win. But there are 17 other teams that want to win and feel like they have a shot at it. You’ve got to be careful with how entitled you feel as to, ‘We have to win.’” 

Of course, the contract drama will begin as we get closer to July 1, as Draisaitl’s deal rolls into its final year. 

That’s understood. Perhaps better than Draisaitl himself.