Cholowski has proven to be a cut below Makar, Heiskenen, Dahlin, etc. The next tier of young D has lots of guys currently outperforming Cholowski, and you can take your pick from them, but that group is going to have a ton of turnover as play styles shift and injuries add up, and as insulating environments change. Cholowski is in the thick of it, not the outside looking in...
The rest is immaturity, impatience, a lack of perspective, and poor analysis from our media and fanbase imo. Cholowski has a glaring weakness, and a propensity to lose his game and get caught in a slump while trying to address it.
... as a 21 yo defensemen on a historically bad team.
And really, it's only in those slumps that people come out of the woodwork with this bs. Cholowski has had no business having any success with the DRW at this point in his career, and he's been a borderline stabilizing force for longer stretches than he's been a lamb to slaughter. He still has more than half a decade of development to add to his game.
Cholowskis best attribute is his hockey sense. He's already shown the ability to use some tools along with that at the NHL level. As his game matures, as his familiarity with the league increases, and most importantly, as he gets saddled with more and more responsibilities, he will continue to be a player that sees the ice well, and is committed to making a balance tipping impact on the game. As is, he fits a rare mold for defensemen, and it's not something that should be taken lightly, or giving up on easily.
He might be Seiders long time top-pair partner. Might be an underrated 2nd pairing stabilizer. He might get caught up in the development cycle and cast off by the selfish needs of the organization. But the idea that he is some fringe bottom pairing offensive d-man masquerading as a prospect, is quite frankly an indication of an extreme level of laziness on the part of the analyst, hoping that they can translate off hand micro level observations, into a macro level hot take.
It's been a pointless, if not horrible year for Cholowski. His value is still higher than it was on draft day, and he's still in a select group of guys that even have the ability to become a long time top 4 defensemen in the league. And our board will probably continue to overrate tall rugged defensemen at the peak of their health, that accrue 40 pt seasons as a sheer product of TOI in the mean time...