Ovechkin and Crosby exceeded expectations. Even Crosby despite how hyped up he was. I mean, he is in his 20th season where he could get a point per game. Throw in the three Cups, the Olympic golds, and the fact he is on many lists as a top 5 player in NHL history, and how can this not be exceeding? Ovechkin leading the NHL in goals 9 times and approaching Gretzky's record is beyond expectations.
Johnson, Tavares, Hall, Nuge, Yakupov, Ekblad, Hischier, Dahlin have not met expectations. Johnson and Hischier were in historically lousy drafts where they weren't revered #1 overall picks like other years, but they still haven't thrived. Ekblad either. Maybe Nuge wasn't in a strong draft either, or Dahlin. But Tavares and Hall were supposed to do better. It is strange because Tavares could end up getting 600 goals and that's not too shabby. But I think it was expected he'd roll with the elite.
Kane, Stamkos, MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews have all exceeded expectations. Even Stamkos. And I say this thinking that everyone of them at the time was going to be a top notch star and they were. The amount of hardware between all of them is epic.
Hughes and Lafreniere are both looking like they'll be gems for a long time.