Edmonton Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl collected his 1,000th career NHL point on Tuesday, becoming the first German player and fifth-fastest player born outside of North America to reach the milestone.
Draisaitl assisted on Zach Hyman’s power-play goal in the first period, before recording another assist on Connor McDavid’s goal 14 seconds later against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.
1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ POINTS FOR DRAISAITL!!!!
📺: @NHL_On_TNT & @StreamOnMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T https://t.co/IJnb7FGrD9 pic.twitter.com/vePQqKtpf4
— NHL (@NHL) December 17, 2025
Draisaitl has surged to the magic number by producing 14 points over his past seven games, including Nos. 1,000 and 1,001. That also included a three-point effort in Toronto on Saturday night, where he narrowly missed out on reaching 1,000 during a late two-on-one rush with McDavid in a 6-3 win over the Maple Leafs.
“The bench was very excited,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “It would have been almost identical to the 1,000th point for Connor.”
It took Draisaitl 824 games to reach 1,000 points, quicker than any European in NHL history except Peter Stastny (682 games), Jari Kurri (716), Jaromir Jagr (763) and Nikita Kucherov (809).
He’s the 94th player overall to achieve the feat.
“Any player who reaches 1,000 points is pretty remarkable,” Knoblauch said. “Anybody who has (hit the milestone) has been a pretty significant player. Leon, being able to just put up the regular production that he has, being able to score goals, put up the assists and even be a really good defensive player, I think it’s really impressive.
“He’s showing no signs of slowing down, which is good because we need him for many more years. Just a really smart, powerful hockey player.”
Draisaitl had long ago secured the title of Germany’s most accomplished player. Marco Sturm’s 487 career NHL points were the most by someone from that country before Draisaitl came along.
He’ll lead his country into the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.
Draisaitl was the No. 3 pick by Edmonton in 2014 and produced just nine points in 37 games as a rookie before being sent back to the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets. It didn’t take long for him to form one of the NHL’s elite offensive partnerships with McDavid, starting the following year, kicking off a stretch where he won a scoring title, Rocket Richard Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and Hart Trophy while compiling four 50-goal and six 100-point seasons.
Since the start of 2018-19, Draisaitl has produced 1.43 points per game — fourth among NHLers during that stretch behind McDavid (1.64), Kucherov (1.50) and Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon (1.45).
That helped the 30-year-old chase down 1,000 career points at an accelerated rate.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” Knoblauch said. “Not an easy feat.”