I agree in general with the principle of BPA or most valuable player available. You can always trade prospects if the roster is not adding up. Having said that, in the range that Columbus will probably be picking, it seems like it's very close between the different players. In that case, position can very well be a deciding factor beyond what you alluded to.
I'm not averse to using position to break a tie, if there is one, but I genuinely don't think we have more of a center issue than D issue. It's not that clear to me which need is bigger.
And then you have Cayden Lindstrom who is a 6'5 power forward, also a very rare piece. It's not clear that he's going to be a center, but I don't think it matters because of how rare and important that type of player is. You shouldn't pass on him on the grounds that "we don't need wingers".
About the only thing I can conclude from team need discussions is that we don't really need more one dimensional type wingers like Cole Eiserman. But that's one player out of the top twelve.
What we really need on defense is a couple of Savard types. I am drafting center first then several defensemen. I’ll trade up if I need to. We have an early 2nd and two thirds, and that is before any trades. This is a defense oriented draft. Now if we fall out of the first five picks, I might grab defense. But we should be able to get a center like Lindstrom and then get a couple of defensemen like Emery and Gill.
I don't know anything about the D after the top 7 or 8 D on the board. I'll say though that the top group of Dickinson, Yakemchuk, Silayev, Parekh, Buium, and Levshunov are possibly the best top group of D I can recall in a draft. Really impressive. You won't get one of them later.
If you want an elite stopper then Silayev might be a good choice.
What do you do if we're picking 4-6 and Demidov and Lindstrom are off the board? I'd be itching to take one of those D.