So he's not a confirmed bust like some claimed 2 months after he was drafted? Hard to keep track of prospects. It's almost like the play of some of these 18-20 years old tend to evolve.
He was very disappointing in the first half of the year. He came back to normal progression in the second half. We'll see next year. Still has a long way to go.
I'd rank the last year prospects:
Poehling
Brook
Primeau
Fleury
Ikonen
Tyszka
Walford
He was outproduced clearly by Texier (Texier was drafted 13 rank earlier in the 2nd). He was also outproduced by D+2 players Markus Nurmi, Eetu Tuulola (6th round), Otto Kovula (4th round) and Jerry Turkulainen (undrafted). An older center comparable would be Aleksi Saarela (2015 89th, same height) who got 33pts in 51 games post-draft and 28 points in 49 games D+2 (also got 10 points in 9 AHL games).
He needs to at least double his production next year. Actually, 2.5x would be where I set my bar (35 points) for being very good.
At this point, it might be good for him to spend a year in the OHL so he can have prime time opportunities (albeit against easier opposition).
Next year is gonna huge for Ikonen.