Quoting: habitantlecolon
hockey is a 200ft game. I'd rather build the offense aspect of a guy who's already suited on the def awareness part of the sport than build the def aspect of the game for an offense-first player.
This is an exceptionally bad take.
First of all, I would argue that it is easier to get a young talented player to learn and improve defensively as long as they are willing (that is on coaching, culture, and systems) than it is to get a mediocre player that is decent defensively to get better offensively.
Second of all do you even watch Zegras play, or are you just running with that narrative? Here is his career numbers on the rebuilding Ducks in comparison to Suzuki's numbers on the rebuilding habs.
ZEGRAS: 47.14 GF%, 47.09 xGF%
SUZUKI: 46.65 GF%, 47.47 xGF%
I'd wager you think highly of Suzuki, and yet the net results and expected results in terms of Goal % between the 2 players are pretty similar.
For reference here is Kakko's numbers on the contending rangers:
KAKKO: 50.40 GF%, 49.64 xGF%
Not even that much better than Zegras and Suzuki playing mostly sheltered minutes on a contender. However what Suzuki and Zegras bring individually is way beyond anything Kakko does.