We can discuss Fantilli also.
All I heard coming into last season was that he was better than Jack Eichel, and would outdo his rookie season. Obviously you can't penalize a guy for an unfortunate injury, but pro rate it to 82 games and he averaged 11.5 points per 82 games worse than Eichel. A whole different category. Actually a fine rookie season for a 3OA, and he got better as the season went on, but all we heard was how Fantilli was better than the ordinary 3OA and he was picked over some pretty good players because Columbus had to win now and needed a center. Yet, he was like a league average forward and only split time at center.
I'll give him credit for being better than Carlsson, yet both were the wrong pick over Michkov. That'll be shown even further this season.
I named 11 players. Did you expect 11 or more paragraphs? I think for most of those players it's pretty self explanatory why they've stagnated. Before the draft people make every top 10 pick into a future all-star, and not all of them end up being that. Many don't satisfy their draft slot. Thus, they stagnate.
Carlsson is looking like a player who won't satisfy his draft slot, especially in the draft he was in. He might end up a fine 2OA for an average draft, but of course you can't leave out of the equation that he was taken over Michkov and then there's also the Fantilli discussion too, as the majority had Fantilli above Carlsson also. This was viewed as the best draft in years.
Carlsson's PPG was even lower than Fantilli with about 2 and a half minutes more ice time, and being babied by his team. Carlsson's stats likely would've been under .5PPG if he had to play every game and wasn't rotated in and out of the lineup so frequently to keep him fresh. Further, what I don't understand is why people act like Zegras can't play center, yet they are willing to just brush off that Carlsson was literally the absolute worst face off man in the NHL last season. He's young and I'm sure he'll get better, but there's a long way from last to respectable. Seems like a pretty big area of needed improvement and if he can't significantly improve then he's not a center. So much for drafting him because they wanted a center.