Of course it's not "somehow." That's the whole point. Against all odds, i.e. with their superior abilities in other areas, they are very effective.
Gallagher was the same speed if not slower than Suzuki when he first came into the league. Gallagher has put on muscle that makes his legs powerful and increased his speed greatly.
It will be interesting to see if Suzuki can get faster and if he has high abilities that will allow him to be dangerous offensively even if he's small and not that fast.
I get what you mean fundamentally, that small players can still be good. But I don't see that as being debatable, we know it's the case. We're not that far removed from Theo Fleury and Martin St Louis (even Paul Kariya, Doug Gilmour, Pavel Bure) tearing up harder leagues strickly physically speaking.
Suzuki just doesn't play like these guys. Marner doesn't have any skating issues and never had. He's so fast in his crossovers that the lack of forward stride speed isn't an issue.
The one thing you mentioned however is how Gallagher improved his speed (and strength) to the point he's now a top liner. That's a great point. Suzuki, with proper development training wise, can certainly improve significantly too.
But, even with that improved, I still want a bit more pace in his skating. As smart as he is, when the games go fast he gets overwhelmed. You need to be able to be smart, but think and act fast in the current NHL as well.
