I really don't want to participate any further, but I'll just say the words...
The whole "he's big and therefore it takes longer" is - like everything in hockey - not universal. The origination of that is players that hit growth spurts and it throws off their coordination (in terms of things like skating mechanics, but also strength distribution, etc.). Tyler Myers looked like Bambi on ice when he was in...uh...where ever he was in the Dub...Kelowna? That's what that's about, in short.
Jamie Oleksiak was 6'7" at the combine and had insane leg strength. He was 6'5", 210 lbs. at 16 or 17. He's gotta be 25 by now, so we're talking about a lot of time being a giant...he's used to it, he grew into his body a while ago. So that doesn't really apply here.
And, again, he's really not doing anything amazing...he's just doing what you'd expect from a third pairing guy. He supports the rush pretty well because he's a good skater, very mobile. And some people like to talk about forwards/centers insulating the D and all that...but the inverse exists...the amount of ground our centers cover eases off the pressure on the defense. The amount of multi-line puck carriers (87, 71, 81, 58) we have also minimizes the amount of touches that he has to make to exit the zone. Our NZ routes and weak side winger leak also pushes back forechecks and doesn't allow the defenders to sit in their normal spots.
That's why a player like Trevor Daley took off here...that's not a reclamation thing. That's a very good player that didn't fit into Chicago's system and did fit into Pittsburgh's. The reclamations (credit to Jacques Martin and Sergei Gonchar among others) are guys like: Engelland, Chorney, Niskanen, Schultz to an extent, Cole, Ruhwedel, etc.
Again, part of that is game play, but there's no question that Martin and Gonchar are doing God's work with some of these younger guys...but Daley doesn't apply there really to any great degree. But Daley was terrific for us and is sorely missed. We might have replaced his mobility with Hunwick, but Hunwick is no Daley...not by a long shot. If anything, Hunwick has vanillafied his game so much to try to stay in the game that he's rendered himself completely useless...so scared to make a mistake that he does nothing but screw up and gets scratched for it...that's a tough cycle to break out of...