To be sure I'm a big fan of Zegras, and wish he had fallen to 10 so my Canucks could have taken him but I think Bryam was the better choice, even with the weak year for blueliners as his game is so complete and even has an edge of nasty to him.
I see Zegras as a better more playmaking version of Kadri (when he is on his game at his best) and the ducks have to be extrmely pleased with him as he is going to be an impact player for the ducks as soon as the 21-22 season IMO.
Don't get me wrong, Byram has a lot of things going for him that I like and on paper reads a lot like Heiskanen; whom I absolutely adored as a prospect...I was incredibly high on both Miro & Cale that year...so I get where people who are really high on him are coming from. It's how I felt about Heiskanen two years ago & Hanifin before him. But after the way I got burned by Hanifin, I am wary about using top 5 picks on blueliners that don't clearly have the dynamic talent to drive the play from the backend at the NHL level.
...and even though I really like Byram's play against the puck, his mean streak, and accept that, whether his shot will beat NHL goalies regularly or not, his goals displayed nice offensive instincts; I am not confident that he will really drive the play at the NHL level. Instead, I see him more as a 35-40 point guy at his peak...the Seabrook to Makar's Keith; if I was to build on the Keith comp that I liked so much for Makar as a prospect.
Byram's a great skater at the junior level, but I don't think he'll be explosive/quick enough against NHLers for his puck-rushing to be anywhere near as dynamic as it was in the dub. And if he ends up partnered with Makar on our big minute top pairing, then the transition game will not flow through him the way it did this past season. Throw in my concerns about the # of his goals that would've been stopped comfortably by NHL caliber keepers and we get to the current unknown of: how much will he be able to turn his shot into a weapon for Cale & co. to set up as a huge factor in whether he will be a significant offensive contributer or not.
If our pick had been closer to yours, I would've been perfectly happy with Bo being the pick. I just didn't love Byram as a top 5 pick because I didn't think the talent was dynamic enough to warrant a top 5 pick the way Makar, Heiskanen & Quinn Hughes' talent did. Especially not over guys like Pod & Zegras; whom I did see notably higher 'realistic ceilings' for...albeit ones that they are further away from realizing.
