
#3. Leon Draisaitl
Imagine being the Buffalo Sabres and living with the fact that they picked Sam Reinhart over Leon Draisaitl in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft? And then one year later they missed out on Connor McDavid too! That hurts.
Draisaitl’s 2019-20 season was incredible. After McDavid went down with an injury, Draisaitl still led the team towards a great regular season, before getting upset in the Qualifying Series. In 71 games played, he had 43 goals, 67 assists and 110 points. His 1.54 points per game average was a remarkable pace and it’ll be interesting if he can put those same numbers up again this year.
Paired up with McDavid most nights, the two are a dominating duo, but still haven’t had much playoff success. Similar to Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, for whatever reason it hasn’t translated when the games count. Despite that, he’s still one of the best players in the NHL and of course within this division.
Draisaitl won a lot of hardware last season, winning the Art Ross Trophy and Hart Trophy. Although he was voted as the most valuable player in the NHL last season, I don’t think that’s going to happen again next year. Speaking of which…