Leon Draisaitl
Draisaitl is a first-line, first-power-play-unit player on a team that has kept him beside Connor McDavid, and the reporting I found shows no threat to that role and no injury concern.
Role
Daily Faceoff's line page (fetched Nov 1, projected lines) shows Podkolzin, McDavid and Draisaitl as the top forward line, with Draisaitl in the right-wing column. Oilers Nation's Nov 1 game-day preview lists the same trio. Daily Faceoff has him on the first power-play unit with Kapanen, Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid and Bouchard. A Puckcast projection for Nov 1 has a similar unit but with Podkolzin in the group and without Nugent-Hopkins. A MatchWiz page, undated in the snippet, shows the top line at about 12 to 13 minutes at 5-on-5 in its last two games and power-play time of about 3:15 to 3:24 for the top unit. I did not find an overall ice-time average. The second power-play unit on Daily Faceoff is Podkolzin, Frederic, Dach, Shea and Ekholm. I found no one reported as competing with him for his spot.
He plays next to McDavid at 5-on-5 and on the top power-play unit. Daily Faceoff cites an Oilers power play that led the NHL at 30.6% last season. Last season's line of 28 points and 10 power-play points in 15 games came from a small sample but shows how much of his production runs through the man advantage. Nothing I found shows a lineup change that would cut his minutes.
Last season's 15 games played is the only availability figure I hold, and I did not search for the reason. The top power-play unit is described differently across sources (Kapanen versus Podkolzin, Nugent-Hopkins in or out), so the supporting cast is not settled. A preseason Hockey Writers piece suggested coach Mike Babcock could split Draisaitl from McDavid with a Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Kapanen line. That is one writer's proposal, and the current lines do not show it.
Where analysts split
Broad agreement that he is a top-line player on the first power-play unit. The only open question I found is who fills the wing and power-play spots around McDavid and Draisaitl, plus a preseason suggestion, not seen in current lines, to split the two stars.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
Others at C
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