Fresh off signing an eight-year contract extension with the club, Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl recently spoke about what the city of Edmonton means to him and what kind of culture the Oilers have built in a <a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-at-the-rink-podcast-oilers-draisaitl-bill-daly-join-show">wide-ranging interview</a> on the NHL.com @TheRink podcast last week.

Draisaitl, who scored 106 points in 81 games with the Oilers during the 2023-24 regular season before tacking on 31 points in 25 playoff contests over the team&#8217;s run to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, discussed his own personal attachment to Edmonton and what it means to him to wear Oilers colours on a nightly basis.
<blockquote>&#8220;I think when you get drafted somewhere, I&#8217;ve said this before, you create a type of love for that team,&#8221; Drasiaitl said. &#8220;Your original thought is that, &#8216;They wanted me, and I want to pay it back to that team, and I want to be with this team forever.&#8217; I think that&#8217;s always the initial thought of every player.
&#8220;It&#8217;s just the passion that the city brings toward hockey, toward us. The people just admire us and they just love us so, so much. They support us. I&#8217;m very happy, I take great pride in wearing the Oilers jersey and playing for our city.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;ve created that over the last couple of seasons, I think we&#8217;ve created a culture that people want to be a part of. I think that everyone who signs with us or gets traded to us, they always truly realize how special we&#8217;re treated in the first place. Our building, how great care our ownership takes of us, the type of team we have, how tight we are, how much we enjoy playing for each other. I think that&#8217;s something that a lot of people want to be a part of.&#8221;</blockquote>
One of those players who more recently decided to join the Oilers is Corey Perry, who played a supporting role in their long playoff run this past spring before signing another one-year deal to remain with the club for the 2024-25 season.
Perry routinely butted heads with the Oilers and their fans during his long tenure with the Anaheim Ducks, with whom he defeated the Oilers in seven games during the second round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But now, he and Draisaitl are on the same side.
<blockquote>&#8220;That&#8217;s the most fun part about the hockey world, I think,&#8221; Draisaitl said. &#8220;There&#8217;s so many guys you battle against and that you just can&#8217;t stand, and you, in a way, get aggravated just looking at their face, and then you get to meet them and you&#8217;re like, &#8216;Wow, this is the best guy in the world, and I would do anything for him,&#8217; right? It&#8217;s so funny how this game works this way.
&#8220;[Perry] is certainly one of those guys. I&#8217;ve been in a playoff series against him, in seven games, and I probably wanted to tomahawk my stick over his head, but now I would do anything for him because I know how good of a teammate he is, how much he cares about the game, how he presents himself, how he takes care of his teammate. He&#8217;s a really, really great teammate, and still a really good player.&#8221;</blockquote>
The Oilers are slated to open their 2024-25 regular season slate of games on October 9 when they play host to the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
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Fresh off signing an eight-year contract extension with the club, Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl recently spoke about what the city of Edmonton means to him and what kind of culture the Oilers have built in a <a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-at-the-rink-podcast-oilers-draisaitl-bill-daly-join-show">wide-ranging interview</a> on the NHL.com @TheRink podcast last week.



Draisaitl, who scored 106 points in 81 games with the Oilers during the 2023-24 regular season before tacking on 31 points in 25 playoff contests over the team's run to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, discussed his own personal attachment to Edmonton and what it means to him to wear Oilers colours on a nightly basis.
<blockquote>"I think when you get drafted somewhere, I've said this before, you create a type of love for that team," Drasiaitl said. "Your original thought is that, 'They wanted me, and I want to pay it back to that team, and I want to be with this team forever.' I think that's always the initial thought of every player.

"It's just the passion that the city brings toward hockey, toward us. The people just admire us and they just love us so, so much. They support us. I'm very happy, I take great pride in wearing the Oilers jersey and playing for our city.

"I think we've created that over the last couple of seasons, I think we've created a culture that people want to be a part of. I think that everyone who signs with us or gets traded to us, they always truly realize how special we're treated in the first place. Our building, how great care our ownership takes of us, the type of team we have, how tight we are, how much we enjoy playing for each other. I think that's something that a lot of people want to be a part of."</blockquote>
One of those players who more recently decided to join the Oilers is Corey Perry, who played a supporting role in their long playoff run this past spring before signing another one-year deal to remain with the club for the 2024-25 season.

Perry routinely butted heads with the Oilers and their fans during his long tenure with the Anaheim Ducks, with whom he defeated the Oilers in seven games during the second round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But now, he and Draisaitl are on the same side.
<blockquote>"That's the most fun part about the hockey world, I think," Draisaitl said. "There's so many guys you battle against and that you just can't stand, and you, in a way, get aggravated just looking at their face, and then you get to meet them and you're like, 'Wow, this is the best guy in the world, and I would do anything for him,' right? It's so funny how this game works this way.

"[Perry] is certainly one of those guys. I've been in a playoff series against him, in seven games, and I probably wanted to tomahawk my stick over his head, but now I would do anything for him because I know how good of a teammate he is, how much he cares about the game, how he presents himself, how he takes care of his teammate. He's a really, really great teammate, and still a really good player."</blockquote>
The Oilers are slated to open their 2024-25 regular season slate of games on October 9 when they play host to the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

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Leon Draisaitl discusses Oilers’ strong team culture attracting former rivals like Corey Perry

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