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Leon Draisaitl Edmonton Oilers In Play! magazine
Leon Draisaitl delivered a four-assist performance against former teammate Stuart Skinner and became the NHL’s fifth-fastest player born outside of North America to reach the 1,000-point milestone. File photo: Tim Jarrold - In Play! magazine
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NHL DECEMEBER 16, 2025 – Draisaitl becomes NHL’s first German-born player to reach 1,000 pointS

Leon Draisaitl had four assists against former teammate Stuart Skinner to reach the 1,000-point milestone and help the Oilers pick up a victory versus the Penguins. Draisaitl, who is set to represent Team Germany at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, became the first player from his country to hit a quadruple-digit total.

  • Draisaitl became the sixth player in NHL history to record his 1,000th career point on a goaltender that he was previously teammates with. He joined Henrik Sedin (Jan. 20, 2017 vs. Roberto Luongo), Rod Brind’Amour (Nov. 4, 2006 vs. Martin Gerber), Phil Housley (Nov. 8, 1997 vs. Curtis Joseph), Bernie Federko (March 19, 1988 vs. Mike Liut) and Bryan Trottier (Jan. 29, 1985 vs. Roland Melanson).
  • Connor McDavid (2-2—4) also had four points and reached 56 on the season to pass Nathan MacKinnon for the League lead before MacKinnon (2-1—3) reclaimed it later in the evening. Sidney Crosby collected an assist to hit 1,722 career points and move to the brink of tying the franchise record held by Mario Lemieux (1,733) for nearly 37 years.

WILD TRIO LIFTS MINNESOTA TO FIFTH STRAIGHT WIN, SEVENTH SHUTOUT OF 2025-26
Kirill Kaprizov (1-0—1) and Quinn Hughes (0-1—1) combined on one of five Wild goals and Filip Gustavsson turned aside all 25 shots he faced as Minnesota captured its 20th victory of the season and extended the NHL’s longest active win streak to five games.

  • Kaprizov, who scored his 14th home goal of the season and tied Nathan MacKinnon for the second most among all players, netted No. 206 in his career to overtake Mikko Koivu (205) for second place on the franchise’s all-time list. It also marked his 70th career power-play goal and surpassed Zach Parise (69) for the most in Wild history.
  • Hughes found the score sheet for the second time in as many games with Minnesota and joined Cam Barker (2 GP in 2009-10) as the second defenseman in Wild history to register a point in each of his first two games with the franchise. The longest streak by any position in that scenario is held by Pavol Demitra (6 GP in 2006-07).
  • Gustavsson, who earned his 14th career shutout with the Wild since joining the club in 2022-23, backstopped his team to their NHL-leading seventh shutout this season (Jesper Wallstedt: 4) – their most in a single campaign since 2015-16 (8). Minnesota is the first team to feature multiple goaltenders each register three or more shutouts prior to its 35th game of a season since the NY Rangers in 2014-15 (Henrik Lundqvist: 5 & Cam Talbot: 3).

ATLANTIC TEAMS LATE HEROICS, CELEBRINI HITTING 50 POINTS

Tuesday notes from the 10-game slate, including Toronto and the Detroit Red Wings delivering late go-ahead goals during victories as well as Macklin Celebrini reaching 50 points on the season:

  • The Maple Leafs entered the third period with a two-goal deficit, but scored three times in the final frame including late game-tying (Auston Matthews at 56:51) and game-winning (Dakota Joshua at 56:59) goals eight seconds apart to earn Toronto’s second multi-goal third period comeback of the season tying Edmonton (2x) and Anaheim (2x) for the most in 2025-26. Matthews, who has scored in four of his last six games and now sits six goals away from surpassing Mats Sundin (420) for the most in franchise history, tallied his 69th career game-tying goal tying Darryl Sittler for the second most in franchise history, behind Sundin (75).
  • Celebrini (2-2—4) scored a highlight-reel spin-o-rama goal en route to recording his third career four-point game and becoming the NHL’s third 50-point scorer this season (also Connor McDavid & Nathan MacKinnon). Celebrini tied Ron Francis, Phil Housley, Ted Kennedy, Ilya Kovalchuk and Pierre Turgeon for the fifth most four-point games by a teenager in NHL history – Wayne Gretzky (14), Sidney Crosby (8), Dale Hawerchuk (7) and Jimmy Carson (4) round out the top four.

NHL on TNT two-pack capped by Devils dueling Golden Knights in LAS vegas

Wednesday’s five-game slate is highlighted by an NHL on TNT doubleheader, which opens with Dylan Larkin and the Red Wings hosting Clayton Keller and the Mammoth followed by Nico Hischier and the Devils visiting Jack Eichel and the Golden Knights.

Eichel returns to T-Mobile Arena after Vegas’ five-game road trip that began with a 3-0 shutout victory versus New Jersey on Dec. 5. Eichel found the score sheet in all five contests and needs two assists to reach 400 in his career, while the Golden Knights went 4-0-1 during the journey and extended their overall point streak to seven games (6-0-1 since Nov. 29).

EIGHT WEEKS UNTIL NHL PLAYERS RETURN TO OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES
NHL Players will soon be heading to Italy to play for gold at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, with the men’s tournament beginning in exactly eight weeks (Wednesday, Feb. 11) when Team Finland faces Team Slovakia and Team Italy meets Team Sweden. Several skaters named to preliminary rosters are in action during tonight’s NHL on TNT doubleheader including Moritz Seider (Team Germany) and Ondrej Palat (Team Czechia):

Moritz Seider, D, Detroit Red Wings / Team Germany (1st Olympics)

  • Seider has yet to miss a contest since bursting onto the NHL scene and could head to Italy with a 386-game career-opening “Ironman” streak in addition to his historic silver medal at the 2023 World Championship and Calder Memorial Trophy in 2021-22. Seider was selected sixth overall in the 2019 NHL Draft less than two months after winning a DEL championship with Adler Mannheim – the overtime clincher was scored by Thomas Larkin (Team Italy), who shares the same surname as Seider’s current teammate and Team USA hopeful, Dylan.

Ondrej Palat, F, New Jersey Devils / Team Czechia (2nd Olympics)

  • Palat, no stranger to competing on the biggest stage at both the professional and international level, can lead his country back to Olympic glory after winning two straight Stanley Cup championships with the Lightning and a gold medal on home soil during the 2024 World Championship. The only Czech members of the “Triple Gold Club” to date are Jiri Slegr and Jaromir Jagr, the latter of whom competed in all five Olympics with NHL players (2014, 2010, 2006, 2002 & 1998) including alongside Palat at the Sochi Games.
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Guest Writer