Leon Draisaitl said he was thrilled to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer this season but that he has plenty of room for improvement.
"I'm proud in a way, of course, but I know that I have lots of things to work on," the Edmonton Oilers forward said Friday. "It's obviously the cliche, everyone says that, but it is true. At the end of the day that there are many things that I can improve. I want to do that every year."
Draisaitl scored 110 points (43 goals, 67 assists) in 71 games before the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. During its Return to Play Plan announcement Tuesday, the NHL said the regular season was over, giving the 24-year-old his first scoring title in his six NHL seasons.
"Obviously when you come to numbers like this, there's always people that help you get there," said Draisaitl, who scored 105 points (50 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games last season, when he was fourth in the NHL behind leader Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning (129 points).
"I've been lucky enough to have some great teammates, some great linemates over the last two years that have really made me a better player and pushed me to become an offensively dangerous player. You dream of these things, no question, but until you do it, it seems so far away."
Draisaitl finished 13 points ahead of teammate and sometime linemate Connor McDavid (97 points; 34 goals, 63 assists). Draisaitl is expected to receive serious consideration for the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP this season, but that was something he downplayed Friday. He was the top vote-getter in an NHL.com poll for the award this week.
"I don't really pay too much attention to the Hart Trophy race, to be honest with you," Draisaitl said. "Of course, it would be a big honor, it would be great to win it or ever come close to being in the race. That's a great thing for me personally. I'm very happy about that, no question. We'll find out soon enough whatever the decision is. Either way, I'll be proud of myself."
The Oilers (37-25-9, .585 points percentage) were fifth in the Western Conference and will play the Chicago Blackhawks in a best-of-5 Qualifying Round if the season resumes.
"It's a team with a lot of experience still," Draisaitl said of Chicago. "They've won, they have that experience of how to win hockey games, playoff series. I think it'll be a good matchup, a good series, and we're looking to obviously win that."
Before he gets to that series, Draisaitl said he will be focused on restarting his game and knocking off the rust, having been, like the rest of the NHL, away from competition for more than two months. No return date has been announced and training camps are not expected to open until at least July 10.
"It definitely takes a while," he said. "Hockey in general is a sport that takes maybe a little longer than other sports to get into your coordination, your cardio, that kind of stuff, your timing. It takes a little while. But I think the NHL will give us enough time to get ready and get back into it and get our feet wet. At the end of the day, we're all in the same boat, right? Every team has the same circumstance pretty much. I guess you could say it's pretty fair."
No comments:
Post a Comment