Draisaitl is playing amazing on the wing for Hall and Nuge, the idea right now of pulling that apart and having Drai center Hall and Eberle is really short-sighted.
Nuge is a guy who will carve out 60+ points as a 100 foot player that this team absolutely needs. If you're watching him play each game, he's getting more and more physical as he gets some adult weight on his frame. He likes getting in there and doing the work.
Nuge is as untouchable as Hall is, don't kid yourselves. Unless he's headed out the door to solve our #1D problems, you can put good money down on him remaining in Edmonton as long as we can keep him.
And now that Drai is killing it in his time up here this season thus far, with no sign of falling off - or just being lucky to have his points, considering he drives play and back-checks, and goes into the corner to use his size for his line...he's not going anywhere, either. The kid is a star.
The odd men out in this formula we have, unfortunately, are Eberle and Yakupov. Moving one of our centers is brutally stupid, and y'all should feel bad for suggesting it. And for those who think McDavid had his ppg run going due to Yakupov are out of their minds. Now, I'm not saying Yakupov didn't play well with him, because he did. McDavid wasn't pulling Yak along behind him like a piano and gifting him points by association like some people are trying to convey - but McDavid absolutely will make anyone he plays with much better, and it's not going to cripple him to not have Yakupov there as a linemate when he comes back from the gym in a couple months time.
Shopping Eberle and Yakupov around, along with a 1st (which, let's be honest, is going to have a lot of value) can get us some very strong help on our blueline, and not truly hurt us all that much up front.
Eberle is a skilled forward that finishes and puts up points. On a team that doesn't perennially struggle, he could put up 70+ reliably on a top line. And a 1st round pick that is most likely going to fall 7-12th is still a pretty big deal around the NHL. Lottery-protected or not.
Perhaps we need to forget about trying to land a #1D, and slowly build up our blueline with 3/4 guys, so at the very least one guy isn't getting sorely over-worked.
Eberle and a 1st could go out, bring us back some badly needed D-help, and we would be a much better team for it. McD comes back, we have...
Hall - Nuge - Drai
Pou - McD - Yak
Fill in the blanks
*** - Sekera
Klefbom - Schultz
Nurse - Gryba
Reinhart
The outlook of a move like that, vs trying to shake up our center depth, which is strong for the first time in a decade or longer, is astronomically better.