Remember that they were perfectly comfortable marching into two seasons ago with a first line of
Verhaeghe - Barkov - Duclair
back when Duke was a flaky 40-point guy and Verhaeghe had zero track record in the NHL. They were totally comfortable plugging Bennett in as the 2C, and those aren't the only guys they've gambled on in the top 6 (Wennberg, Tippett).
White came into the league as a C and has played RW for the past few seasons. I don't think they try to reinvent him as a LW.
Staal has only ever played C, and he's too good at face-offs, has too much size, and is too shit of a skater for Zito to bring him in as a wing.
We saw Brunnette move Lundell to LW in the playoffs, and, to an extent, it does make sense to make room for Luostarinen in the top 9. I could pretty easily see them utilizing Eetu on the wing.