That’s wonderful for him.
Nonetheless, as of right now only 5 top 6 forwards have came out of the 2022 and 2023 drafts combined (Slafkovsky, Cooley, Bedard, Fantilli, Carlsson), all of them being top 3 picks
That's wonderful for your specific standards. Let's divulge into it.
Bedard finished first in scoring for rookies with 61 points. Carlsson ranked 12th in scoring for rookies with 29 points. Fantilli finished 14th with 27 points. Fellow Duck LD Minty finished 13th in scoring for rookies with 28 points, just to give us perspective that maybe Carlsson didn't have that great a season despite being gifted a top line position, minutes, and the PP.
Carlsson is a "potential top-6 forward" today, but he finished 7th in scoring forwards on the team. He's worst at the faceoff dot than Zegras! Again, Verbeek gifted him a top line position and so we call him a top-6 forward, but was he really a top-6 forward last year? We're hoping Verbeek didn't screw him up by rushing him to the NHL.
Now, back to Verbeek complaining about lack of scoring in our system this year and getting fortunate that Cutter was available. Let's not disregard Snuggerud was available for the Ducks at 22nd overall in the 2022 draft. The Blues wanted Snuggerud in the NHL next year, but decided to stick around college for another year. Verbeek shared at the recent migration that Gaucher is still years away from the NHL.
Speaking of non top-10 draft scoring forwards not turning into anything, 2019 RW Colangelo might become an exception.