Nice.
His transformation from this relatively shy young man about 2-3 years ago to an absolute boss with the media now is quite something. I feel that he and Nurse are the real leaders on this team and you can see it in how they come off in their pressers, just oozing leadership IMO and way more comfortable with the press than they used to be.
This isn't to take away from McDavid and Nuge but those guys were robots when they entered the league and are the same robots today. Drai and Nurse have real personality. The core is a good mix of on ice skillset and personalities.
I'm not sure about that. There's a clear deference for Connor McDavid for both his unique abilities, legendary conditioning including the work boots to come back from a potential career ending injury (and within a schedule where he didn't miss any regular season games). Like Gretzky, McDavid's virtuoso abilities were identified early and both harbour a low key public persona (and genuine personalities I believe too) that deflect from their personal achievements and frankly seem embarrassed by that unrelenting attention careful to be as vanilla as possible - more duty than something they want to do. There's different styles of leadership which we see on this Oilers team and the great 80's Dynasty. Nugent Hopkins is also more of a cerebral, introverted personality type that isn't comfortable talking about himself but rather focused on team success.
Both Draisaitl and Nurse have professional athletes for fathers and in Nurse's case an elite NFL quarterback as an uncle. Very helpful in nurturing all of the characteristics for life as a pro athlete. Both are also pretty gregarious personalities who are more direct in answering questions. Their confidence shines through and increasingly we see more of their personalities in these media availabilities. Draisaitl is by far the best interview on the team. He is humble in deflecting attention from his achievements, laser focused on winning, and quick to be a defender or champion of his teammates. Notable as an example is when media and fan attention is on Yamamoto having a tough start production wise Draisaitl speaks positively of the ways that Yamamoto is making a positive contribution on the ice.
This team is like a brotherhood much like the 80's Oilers. In McDavid and Gretzky you have two giant superstars setting the culture through their generational talent, unquenchionable hunger to win, and strong families that have instilled values to be humble, team focused and inclusive to winning. Draisaitl, Nurse echo Messier and Kevin Lowe as the fire to their generational running mates's ice, more vocal and fiery in their leadership style following beside and complementing their best player and captain. Nugent Hopkins is somewhat like Jari Kurri as a more subdued complementary leader.
In both team's cases, their best players were their greatest leaders in setting the culture, work ethic, and brotherhood required to buy-in, support one another and chase championships. The blend of leadership styles is another strong competitive advantage imo.
