EDMONTON -- Leon Draisaitl was a little boy when his father, Peter, took him to the rink in Cologne, Germany. It was 6 in the morning on a Sunday. Dressed for the cold outside, sweating from the warmth inside, Peter put on his son's hockey equipment for him.
"Then he looked at me and started crying," Peter said. "He said, 'No, I don't want to go out there. I want to go home.' "
Peter laughed. It's funny to look back on that now. Leon is the face of German hockey and is coming home with the Edmonton Oilers to play the team Peter coaches, Kolner Haie of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga -- the Cologne Sharks of the German Ice Hockey League, in English.
The Oilers will arrive in Cologne on Sunday, practice Monday and play the Sharks in an exhibition at Lanxess Arena on Wednesday (10 a.m. ET; NHLN, SN) as part of the 2018 NHL Global Series Challenge.
They will open the regular season against the New Jersey Devils at Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, MSG+) as part of the 2018 NHL Global Series.
"It's going to be amazing," Leon said. "I think the whole event is going to be a lot of fun, and obviously with my dad being on the other side coaching the other team, it'll be a very special night for my whole family. Hopefully it will be really entertaining for all the fans."
Peter never coached one of his son's teams. He has never coached against one of them, either. He said he doesn't know how it will feel.
But he said he isn't looking at this from a personal point of view, even though he watches each of his son's games on the computer via NHL GameCenter and rarely gets to see him play in person, let alone from the opposing bench.
There is a bigger picture.
Yes, Leon, at age 22, already is one of the best German players in NHL history, first in points per game (0.77), fourth in goals (75), and sixth in assists (132) and points (207). Cologne is where he grew up playing and trains in the summer.
But there is another attraction for German fans too.
"No. 1, they get the opportunity to see probably the best hockey player in the world -- if not the best hockey player in the world, then for sure the fastest hockey player in the world, Connor McDavid," Peter said with a laugh. "We just don't have the opportunity to see this team, at least not live. To have them in our arena and being able to match up with them, it's amazing."
And how will the Sharks match up with the Oilers?
"We have a plan already," Peter said. "We have a great, great plan, basically. We might play with eight, nine, 10 guys. We can fix it this way."
* * * * *
Peter Draisaitl was born in Karvina and grew up in Opava, near the Poland border in what was then Czechoslovakia. Hockey was the No. 1 sport there.
"Basically never wanted to do something else than play hockey," he said.
When he was 13, the family moved to Hanover in what was then West Germany because of the political situation at the time. Hockey was not the No. 1 sport there, but it was still No. 1 to him.
He went on to have an 18-year professional career as a forward mostly in Mannheim and Cologne, scoring as many as 80 points (37 goals, 43 assists) in 43 games for Cologne in 1990-91.
Leon was born in Cologne on Oct. 27, 1995, when Peter was playing for the Sharks. The kid who cried and said he didn't want to go on the ice soon changed his tune.
The first photo on his Instagram account shows him at a young age wearing a red hockey helmet and blue hockey gloves, holding a hockey stick and sucking on a pacifier. In German, he wrote, "Even then crazy about ice hockey!" In English, he added "#crazy," "#bestsportintheworld" and "#madeingermany."
"All I wanted to do was go into the dressing room and run around with a stick," Leon said. "If you want to say 'meant to be,' well, I just kind of fell into that hockey world."
A natural athlete, Leon showed talent at every sport he tried. He played some of the No. 1 sport in Germany, soccer. But he kept coming back to hockey, learning little things from his dad -- from how to deal with his equipment and behave in the locker room, to how to play the game.
"Basically I was just a hockey dad," Peter said. "My wife, Sandra, was a hockey mom, driving all over the country, driving him to the games. … Of course he was asking after the game, 'Papa, was I good? Was I bad?' But it's gone. It's gone by now."
Peter laughed.
"These days are over," Peter said.
Leon was so good that he left home at age 16 to play in Canada. After two seasons with Prince Albert of the Western Hockey League, he was selected No. 3 by the Oilers in the 2014 NHL Draft.
He made his NHL debut Oct. 9, 2014, at age 18, a little more than two weeks before he turned 19. In 2016-17, his second full NHL season, he ranked eighth in the NHL in scoring with 77 points (29 goals, 48 assists). He had 70 points (25 goals, 45 assists) last season.
Peter watches Leon as a dad now. No tips. No critiques.
"His hockey life, his hockey career, is pretty much entirely up to him," Peter said. "I wish him well. I wish him all the best in the world. But as a father, most important thing is that he stays a good person. He's a good boy."
* * * * *
Leon Draisaitl helped the Oilers make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 11 seasons in 2016-17. He had 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 13 games as they defeated the San Jose Sharks in six games in the Western Conference First Round and lost to the Anaheim Ducks in seven games in the second round.
The day after they were eliminated, he flew to Cologne. Two days after that, he played for Germany in the 2017 IIHF World Championship. He was named one of Germany's top three players in the tournament, even though he played three of its eight games and had two assists.
"Every time you put your country's sweater on, it's pretty special, but in my hometown, in front of my family and friends, for my country, you know, it was a pretty easy decision for me," Leon said. "I'm very proud to be German. I've said that many times. Whenever I can represent my country, I'll do that with a lot of pride."
Now he's representing the Oilers and the NHL in his hometown in his home country, and more.
Hockey has made progress in Germany, whose men won the silver medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics in a tournament without NHL players. Its only other medals in the sport were bronze in 1976 at Innsbruck and in 1932 at Lake Placid.
But Leon is recognized far more in Edmonton than in Cologne away from the rink. The point of this event is to raise his profile, McDavid's, the Oilers', the NHL's and the game's, so more little boys grow up crazy about hockey, proud to be made in Germany.
"If that's the reason we're doing this, or part of it, hopefully that'll change a little bit, of course," Leon said. "I think we're taking good steps with the German hockey. I think it'll be pretty amazing."
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