The Ducks also need to realize that you dont build an entire team through your farm system. Zegras wont be moved for more youth; but if he is moved it would be wise to be traded for a proven veteran of a certain caliber
I see Ducks fans boasting their youth.. and its quite impressive. But no team in the games history has won with their youth being in every major position.
I think it's more likely one of the dmen will be moved at some point, just because they seem to be able to find really good ones without needing to use a high pick. Their forward picks outside the top of the draft haven't been as good, so guys like Zegras or McTavish would be harder to replace with comparable talent if they were moved.
There's no rush though ... I mean Zegras is the "old man" of the group at 23, while most of the other talented kids they have in the lineup are 19-21. At this point, the Ducks don't even really know what they have yet, so why rush anything? Due to injuries last year, their best young players barely got to play together. If you add up the games where they had all of Carlsson, McTavish, Zegras ... they haven't even had 30 total games in the lineup all at once. Trading anyone now is premature, unless they have a can't miss opportunity to land a star.
I think you have to be patient until someone pulls away.
Zegras worked on his weaknesses the last year and a half, and has improved a lot in those parts of the game..... the scoring hasnt come back yet but id be very hesitant to move him until we see how he looks with a coach change.
He's had 9 points in his last 14 games that he's played at C. Additionally, earlier last year he had 5 of his 7 points when he was at C while Leo sat out. So that's 14 points in around 20-ish games, which is interestingly enough right around his usual 60 point pace.
But at LW, he's only had 4 points in almost the same number of games. That's less than a 20 point pace.
Looking at those numbers, it appears that asking him to play defense hasn't hurt his production as a C at all. He just actually has to be allowed to stay at C.