If we are open to the idea of wishing players would transform their games, I'd start from the top.
McDavid with his speed and skill playing a more aggressive, in your face style would transform the club. Draisaitl in tow. Every single person would follow. If you saw McDavid first on pucks on the forecheck laying the bed every time the opportunity was there to do so, you would also see McLeod doing driving the puck wide and taking it to the hole. I really do believe that.
Like you said, he's imitating the players above him. That's completely normal in any environment where men are being led. I would argue every team in the league operates in a similar manner, with their role and depth players following the leaders. Of course over time the playstyles will rub off on one another, especially in practice when you're all joking around and watching McDavid dance through everybody, then you see Desharnais and McLeod and Ryan all trying to be fancy with the puck too. This is how life works.
The greatest teams in league history were able to emulate their leaders to great success because their leaders played a style that was feasible for anyone to follow along with. What do you think of me making a claim that Messier was the real leader of the Oilers dynasty? Well, he certainly was the vocal leader, and his courageous, hard-nosed played and demands from the rest of the group below him to follow were met. Gretzky did his own thing, but that club, Messier included, was bright enough to know they had to do something different, together, with Wayne on his island.
It seems this group hasn't realized that yet, or we do not have a Messier around to bridge the gap so to speak. This is me thinking abstractly and it could be far off the mark, but I really do think this club has to be seen as the same. McDavid should be on his own island because nobody on earth can play the sport like him. They can't get to him, but maybe McDavid can get to them. There is a wading valley here that needs to be gapped somehow so everyone is on the same page, as a team.
Could Draisaitl re-invent his game in a way that other players can look up to and emulate? Can he be a Messier? Again, like Marchant and McLeod, I think those types of players are born that way unfortunately. I love Draisaitl as a player, but if you could put a Bergeron, Messier, Marchand, Crosby type player in his place, do you? In Pitt for example, Crosby played the game in a way it was easy for the rest of the lineup to emulate. Of course he has a litany of special moments only a handful of players ever could have, but the strength of his game 95% of the time was hard, aggressive forechecking, dominating board battles with strength and smarts, dogged determination in all zones. A true, nearly psychotic determination to win. That rubbed off real well on guys like Kunitz, Rust, Dupuis, Guentzel, the list really goes on and on and on with that team. From the top down they had all of their guys playing the same way.
Sorry for the ramble, but I do think this is way more important than most people are willing to think or discuss. I could be off the mark. You put Messier in place of Draisaitl (again, I love Draisaitl) and this team beats Vegas last year. Or you convince McDavid and Draisaitl both to start believing it is their duty to retrieve every single puck, not their linemates, and you'll see a more determined effort.
I mean hell, you see how badly they try to get the puck back during scrambles on the powerplay. It's not like they're incapable. Why can't they have the same tenacity for every single dump in like other generational superstars have had like Crosby, Messier, Marchand, etc?
