World Junior 2015: Germans 'sad' as report has Oilers returning Draisaitl to junior

MONTREAL — The Edmonton Oilers have certainly made a fine mess of things.

According to a report from Sportsnet’s Mark Spector the NHL team is expected to return talented German centre Leon Draisaitl back to junior in the Western Hockey League.

Draisaitl, 19, has played in 39 NHL games and has two goals and five assists. The native of Cologne, Germany would have been eligible to play for Germany at the 2015 world junior championship, but the Oilers decided to keep him. After the decision was made, Draisaitl was a healthy scratch.

"When we first contacted them the situation in Edmonton was a little different," said German coach Pat Cortina, adding their talks with Edmonton were cordial. "I understood their way of thinking then. I guess it's too bad it wasn't like this when we first asked.

"In hindsight it's unfortunate. He definitely would have helped us, it would have been nice to have him ... but we can't change that. We don't have him here now and we won't have him here tomorrow."

The Germans (0-3), playing in Montreal’s Group A, fell to the Slovaks 5-2 on Tuesday night in the round robin. And they certainly could have used a player of Draisaitl’s caliber to help their team as it tries to avoid relegation.

"He's the best player in our age group (for Germany)," said forward Dominik Kahun after the game. "It was not good that he didn't come, he would have helped us for sure. Freddy (Tiffels), me and Leon played together last year and we played very good. It's sad that he didn't come and now he goes to junior."

Germany plays Finland, also winless, on Wednesday night.

Why Edmonton would prevent Draisaitl from playing at the premiere junior tournament in the world, only to send him back to junior some 10 days later only speaks to the kind of myopic, dysfunctional organization the Oilers have become.

This would have been the forward’s third straight world junior championship and his final year of eligibility.

In addition, the report also alleges Draisaitl’s junior team, the Prince Albert Raiders, are in the process of trading him to the Kelowna Rockets prior to the WHL’s Jan. 10 trade deadline. The Rockets only recently acquired defenceman Josh Morrissey from Prince Albert. Morrissey, who currently with Team Canada, has yet to play a game for Kelowna as he was traded just prior to the start of the 10-day tournament.