Oilers’ Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl remain sidelined for at least another week

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers will likely have to fare without Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for a while longer than anticipated.

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said Monday that his team’s two superstars are both expected to miss all three games this week due to injuries, starting Wednesday when they host the Dallas Stars. The Oilers also play a road game against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday before hosting the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

Knoblauch said last Friday that McDavid would miss “maybe a week” with a lower-body injury, whereas Draisaitl would be out “up to a week” when an undisclosed ailment.

“They’re going to be still a while,” Knoblauch said Monday. “We’ll be playing a couple of games without them, at least.”

Draisaitl, a Hart Trophy candidate who leads the NHL with 49 goals and is second with 101 points, missed the previous contest as well — a 4-3 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets last Thursday.

He got tangled up with Utah defenseman Olli Maatta during the second period of a 7-1 victory last Tuesday but stayed in the game. He played 22:23 in his unsuccessful attempt to extend his point streak to 19 games and score his 50th goal.

Knoblauch said it wasn’t until Draisaitl was re-evaluated the next day that his injury was worse than anticipated. Draisaitl has missed just seven games since the start of the 2018-19 campaign, a total that would increase to 10 by week’s end.

McDavid, who’s fourth in the scoring race with 90 points, left last Thursday’s game with 57 seconds remaining in the second period. McDavid pulled up and favored the left side of his body after receiving what appeared to be a small cross-check from Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey.

McDavid left a 4-3 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets with what the team is calling a lower body injury.

McDavid has missed seven games this season. He was sidelined for three games from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4 with an ankle injury and was suspended three games for cross-checking Vancouver Canucks winger Conor Garland in January.

The Oilers beat the Kraken 5-4 last Saturday on the strength of a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins hat trick, his first in six years. It was the first time the Oilers had ever played without McDavid and Draisaitl because of health reasons since they became teammates to start the 2015-16 season. The Oilers sat both players out in the 2021-22 and 2023-24 season finales to rest ahead of the playoffs.

The Oilers are 5-2 without McDavid this season and 1-0-1 without Draisaitl. All wins have come against teams not currently in playoff spots, whereas all losses were to those bound for the postseason.

The powerhouse Stars are next on the schedule followed by the Kraken and Flames. The Kraken are out of playoff contention, but the Flames are battling with St. Louis, Vancouver and Utah for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

The Oilers’ next game after this week is April 1 in Las Vegas. The Oilers are five points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for top spot in the Pacific Division.