With 106 points in the 2024-25 regular season and 29 in the playoffs so far, Leon Draisaitl has been crucial in helping the Edmonton Oilers reach their second consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. Ever since coming to the Western Conference roster in 2014, the Oilers’ #29 has proved his place in the squad again and again. But how was his NHL career supported and shaped by his family? Who are the people who stood by Leon every step of the way to ensure his love for hockey reached its goal?

Who are Leon Draisaitl’s parents?

Leon Draisaitl was born to parents Sandra and Peter Draisaitl. It was from his father that Leon got his first introduction to ice hockey. On a cold Sunday morning, Peter dressed up his kid and took him to an ice rink to open the gates of a world which the latter would go on to call his own and cement his reputation as a top star.

“Then he looked at me and started crying. He said, ‘No, I don’t want to go out there. I want to go home,’” even in 2018, Peter Draisaitl couldn’t forget how his son wasn’t exactly keen on trying his hand in hockey in the freezing temperatures.

Who is Leon Draisaitl’s father, Peter?

Leon’s father, Peter, is a former German professional ice hockey forward who was born in 1965 in erstwhile Czechoslovakia. His international career spans three Winter Olympic Games (1988 with West Germany, 1992 and 1998 with reunified Germany) and seven World Championships, during which he earned a total of 165 international caps and registered 39 goals to his name. Perhaps one of the most memorable yet heartbreaking moments of his international career came in the quarter-finals of the 1992 Olympics in Albertville. Peter took the last shot in the first-ever shootout of the competition. And while he put the puck past Canadian goalie Sean Burke, the puck stopped on the goal line, and Germany lost the game 4-3.

On the domestic front, Leon Draisaitl‘s father plied his trade for Mannheimer ERC (now Adler Mannheim) from 1983-90 and 1992-94, Moskitos Essen (1998-2000), Revierlöwen Oberhausen (2000-01), and Kölner Haie (1990-92 and 1994-98), with whom he won the German national title in 1995.

What’s more? After his playing days were behind him, the Oilers’ star’s father returned to Kölner Haie to serve as their head coach from November 2017 to January 2019, after the former coach, Cory Clouston, was relieved from his duties. Once when Leon Draisaitl’s teammate, Connor McDavid, was asked what he knew about Kölner Haie, he promptly replied, “I understand they have a good coach.” Before the DEL, Peter Draisaitl also racked up several years of experience at the Czech Extraliga, where he coached HC Pardubice and Mountfield Hradec Králové. As of 2025, the former ice hockey forward is the sporting director of Krefeld Pinguine of DEL2.

Who is Leon Draisaitl’s mother, Sandra?

Sandra Draisaitl is the mother of the Edmonton center. While not much is known about the woman who brought the enigmatic Edmonton Oilers star to the world, we can safely say that he support was relentless in making Leon one of the greatest hockey stars of our generation.

What is Leon Draisaitl’s parents’ nationality?

Leon Draisaitl’s parents are German. While Peter was born in Karvina, and spent his early childhood in Opava—both cities in the modern-day Czech Republic—he moved to Hanover in the erstwhile West Germany when he was just 13, and spent most of his 18-year-long professional career in Mannheim and Cologne. In fact, it was in Cologne that Leon was born. Sandra Draisaitl, on the other hand, was born in Germany.

Inside Leon Draisaitl’s relationship with his parents

As mentioned above, Leon got his first taste of ice hockey from his father, Peter. Having devoted his entire life to hockey, first as a player, then as a coach, and now as a sporting director, Peter was understandably eager to share his love for the sport with his son. “Basically I was just a hockey dad,” Peter once said. “My wife, Sandra, was a hockey mom, driving all over the country, driving him to the games. … Of course he was asking after the game, ‘Papa, was I good? Was I bad?’ But it’s gone. It’s gone by now.” Leon left home at the tender age of 16 and moved to Canada, and after just two seasons with Prince Albert of the WHL, he was picked No. 3 by his current team in the 2014 NHL draft. And while Peter was Leon’s coach once, he is quite happy to just watch his son from afar without offering any critique or advice to him as long as he remains a good person.

That being said, Leon hasn’t forgotten that without his dad, he might not have ever become an NHL star in the first place. “My dad was a huge help. He told me that it’s going to be different going to North America. It’s a different game, a different style of hockey. He really helped me in that regard. My whole family was really supportive,” the Edmonton Oilers star later said about how his retired hockey star father shaped his career trajectory.

Quite the journey, from a small city in Germany to the height of stardom in the US! And now, as the Oilers continue to set new records in their pursuit of winning the first Stanley Cup since 1990, Leon Draisaitl is proving to be a major force behind the campaign. Do you think he could help the team go all the way and make amends for the 2024 heartbreak by defeating the Florida Panthers this time around?