Yes, I would take Faber over Carlson for sure. Carlson's a great offensive weapon, especially on the PP, but leaves a lot to be desired elsewhere. He's one of the most overrated dmen in the league IMO. Faber's ES production really isn't too far from prime Carlson's, and he's doing it while being significantly better defensively.
2019 Pietrangelo and Faber are roughly on par IMO. Pietrangelo is better offensively but if I needed a guy to shut down the other team's top line, I'd take Faber.
But they're different types of defenseman. I put a priority on defenseman who can shut down the opponents top scorers, and Faber does that better than both of those guys while still being a valuable offensive player. That's why I rate Slavin as a top 5 defenseman in the league despite his lackluster point totals.
I accept that others may value offensive dmen more. But to me, I'd rather have my #1 be more of a shut down guy, and let a true OFD QB the PP. It's much harder to find good shut down dmen these days, whereas pure offensive dmen / PP QBs seem like a dime a dozen and can often be acquired through waivers or with late picks. Guys like DeAngelo, Gustafsson, Gostisbehere, Barrie, Yandle etc.
Carolina has done this well, where they have Slavin as their #1 dman at 5v5 and on the PK, but have used OFD like Burns, DeAngelo, Gostisbehere, Hamilton, Faulk etc as their PP1 guy. Slavin has shown he can fill in as a QB as needed, but there's no reason to force him to log those extra minutes when there are plenty of less valuable dmen who can QB a PP. There aren't a ton of defenseman who are both meaningfully better QBs than those QB specialists while also being really well rounded in other aspects. Fox is probably the top guy that comes to mind, as well as guys like Makar, Hughes, Dahlin, and Josi. But for most other elite 2 way dmen, I'd just as soon save them for 5v5 and let a lesser dman run PP1.
