Draisaitl was born in Cologne, Germany, where his father, Peter, played professionally. The younger Draisaitl blossomed with Prince Albert in the Western Hockey League. The forward was Prince Albert’s signature player for two seasons before the Edmonton Oilers selected him with the No. 3 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. Draisaitl played 37 games with the Oilers as a rookie in 2014-15 before being assigned to Kelowna of the WHL, which had traded for his rights. He helped Kelowna to the 2015 WHL championship, scoring 28 points in 19 games and earning playoff MVP honors. He then helped Kelowna reach the 2015 Memorial Cup championship game, where it lost in overtime to Oshawa. Draisaitl was named the tournament MVP. In 2015, the Oilers sent Draisaitl to Bakersfield, their American Hockey League affiliate, to start the season. That lasted six games before Draisaitl was called up for the rest of the season, and he finished with 19 goals and 51 points in 72 games. Draisaitl, a natural center who can be used on the wing, has size, speed and vision that make him effective as a scorer or set-up man with a knack for finding the open man. He showed off his variety of skills in 2016-17, finishing second on the Oilers with 77 points (29 goals, 48 assists) to help Edmonton advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2006. Draisaitl led the Oilers in postseason scoring with 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 13 games. After signing an eight-year contract with the Oilers on Aug. 16, 2017, Draisaitl had 70 points (25 goals, 45 assists) in 78 games in 2017-18. He followed that in 2018-19 by finishing second in the NHL with 50 goals and fourth with 105 points. He became the sixth Oilers skater, and first since Craig Simpson in 1987-88) to score at least 50 goals in one season and ninth with at least 100 points. Draisaitl was even better in 2019-20, leading the NHL with 110 points (43 goals, 67 assists) in 71 games. He was voted winner of the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP and the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the League’s most outstanding player as voted by members of the NHL Players’ Association. During the Oilers’ 9-1-0 start to the 2021-22 season, Draisaitl and McDavid became the first pair of Edmonton teammates to individually reach 20 points within the first 10 games of the season since Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri in 1984-85. Draisaitl led the NHL in goal-scoring for much of the season before finishing with 55 goals, second behind Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (60), and 110 points that ranked fourth. Draisaitl set a Stanley Cup Playoff record with five consecutive games of at least three points to help the Oilers to a five-game win against the Calgary Flames in the 2022 Western Conference Second Round while breaking a Battle of Alberta record for most points in a series with 17. His 32 points in 16 games were one behind McDavid for most in the postseason, a run that ended when the Oilers were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final.