Oilers HC claims Leon Draisaitl is a "marked man" as star forward gets tossed multiple times from faceoff circle

Leon Draisaitl has had a long-standing feud with NHL referees regarding his antics during a faceoff, which has seen him get removed from the circle quite often. The Edmonton Oilers have been vocal in the past about the forward getting unnecessarily targeted.

After the Oilers' practice session on Sunday, head coach Kris Knoblauch was asked about how young players can master the faceoff circle. As per him, it is a balance of self-development, learning from other experienced players, and learning the little hacks.

"Well, a lot of it is just getting an advantage going into the draw, and that's a lot of it is about timing, knowing what the referees are doing, and you can [learn from] the veteran centermen," Knoblauch said. (3:20) "They've been doing it so long that they're able to establish their timing, but establishing your timing is also being able to cheat."

Knoblauch took examples of his star centermen, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl's approaches to the faceoff circle, and how younger players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are learning from them.

"Well, even our best centermen, Leon and Connor, you look at our pregame skates," Knoblauch added. "I know Connor every day does some face-offs with Nuge.

"Certainly for the pregame skates, Leon works on it also. But yes, those young guys, they should all those young centermen like Tomasek and Noah [Philp], they should be working on that almost every day."

When asked about why Leon has a high rate of getting tossed from games, the 47-year-old reckoned that his reputation as a cheater in faceoff circles precedes him.

"I guess there's the amount of cheating you can do, how much you can get away with and how much you can't," Knoblauch said. (4:30) "So maybe he's a marked man."

"Yeah, most games, some games I do laugh because it happens so often. Other games it's not so much, but yeah, I don't know. I guess the linesmen are watching him."

Cheating in a faceoff circle includes getting into position with the stick before the puck has been dropped by the referee or a brisk change in stance that unsettles the opponents. Referees are cautious of giving out any unfair advantage, and there has been irritation among the Oilers ranks in previous seasons about Leon Draisaitl getting targeted.

For the times when Draisaitl has been allowed to battle for a puck in a circle, in his career, he has come out as a victor 53.0 percent of time. Last year in the regular season, he had a 54.3 percent success rate from a possible 1,196 faceoffs.

Kris Knoblauch says road games are 'nice' way to start the season

The Edmonton Oilers host the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks in the first two games of the season before going a five-game road stretch. As per Kris Knoblauch, the schedule will be a nice way to start a new campaign and is expected to ease pressure towards the end.

"Oh, it'd be nice," the head coach said. (5:10) "It takes a lot of pressure off later in the year, but we don't want to put too much pressure on winning and getting into first place right away.

"Yeah, we like that, but we're looking at long term and the progression of this team. And a lot of that progression of our team is the progression of those younger players."

The Oilers are looking to make the Stanley Cup for the third straight year. They had been defeated by the Florida Panthers in the last two seasons and are looking to go one better in 2026.