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Before: 1.1 points/hour

During: 3.8 points/hour

After: 1.5 points/hour

This is a rough comparison, as even-strength points include 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 action, but it is close enough to get the point across. For two months, Draisaitl was the hottest scorer in the game. For the other two-thirds of the year, he was a modestly superior scorer to the player who got returned to junior a year ago.

It is also worth considering Draisaitl’s 5-on-5 scoring numbers with and without Taylor Hall, numbers we have exact figures for:

With Hall: 34 points, 879 minutes, 2.3 points/hour

Without Hall: 3 points, 160 minutes, 1.1 points/hour

Draisaitl has a lot of fans in Edmonton, including many of our readers. Those readers are probably wondering, with an increasing sense of frustration, why I’m framing the player’s season this way. After all, on balance Draisaitl had a tremendous campaign, topping 50 points and emerging as a key piece up front. He’s only 20 years old, he’s big, he plays a fairly mature two-way game, and looking at this season through a negative lens may seem unfair.

Nevertheless, I think it’s important to do so, because of how Draisaitl is now perceived. In many circles, he’s not just seen as being part of the core, but of having already exceeded players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle in terms of importance to the Edmonton Oilers. And outside of his size and his newness, it’s hard to understand why.

It strikes me as dangerous to put Draisaitl on that kind of pedestal. Yes, he had two phenomenal months and a 50-point season is nothing to sneeze at. But he did fade badly down the stretch, and that combined with a lousy rookie performance should absolutely inject some caution into the discussion. So too should the fact that without Hall this year he scored at Lauri Korpikoski levels. While we’re at it, it’s probably not a bad idea to mention Draisaitl’s 14.3 shooting percentage (up from 4.1 percent a year ago) or that he had two points and a minus-five rating during his six-game AHL stint.