Would it not be smarter to try trading a guy like Nuge, before your second best player who is only making a couple mil more, and actually earning those couple mil by being the only player on the team who actually keeps up, relatively speaking, with McDavid?
If you ever get decent wingers for McDavid, its not like Drai can't slot into the 2c spot again, where he is better than Nuge, younger, and signed longer to what nowadays is a fair, or even pretty good, contract for a 70pt center.
Maybe I'm crazy, or there is a specific reason you would give up a really good player like Drai before doing just about anything else.