As a teenager, Leo Carlsson is already showing just how special of a player he can be in the NHL.

There was a point in time about six months ago when it was unclear whether Leo Carlsson would stick with the Ducks for the entirety of the 2023-24 season. The 19-year-old from Karlstad, Sweden has quelled those concerns as he enters the All-Star break with 19 points in 31 games as the spearhead of Anaheim’s top line.

An MCL sprain suffered at the end of December was expected to keep him out for about four to six weeks, but he returned to the lineup just three weeks after the injury. Carlsson is currently playing with a knee brace, which he says helps add stability when skating.

“You just have to accept that (injuries) can happen and you don’t have to be sad for a long time because of it, said Carlsson. “(The rehab) was fine, a lot of boring exercises to do over and over again. But it was kind of fast, I think. Playing with a brace on now, so it’s fine.”

In eight games since returning from injury, Carlsson has four points. Included in those four points? The primary assist on Troy Terry’s goal in the final minute of the third period on Wednesday against the Sharks––which knotted the score at two apiece and helped take the game to overtime. Anaheim finished off the comeback effort with a game-winner from Frank Vatrano in the extra frame.

“I guarantee you Leo knew Troy was there before he even touched the puck,” said head coach Greg Cronin after the game. “And I don’t think any other player on our team would have seen that except for one. That would have been Zegras. Because he sees the game in a very similar way. It’s hard to describe. You try to draft (these kinds of players) because I don’t think it’s something that you can coach into people.”

Earlier that morning, Cronin had mentioned that he thought Carlsson’s worst game of the season had come earlier last week in Minnesota against the Wild. He didn’t want Carlsson’s value to be tied entirely to doing things with the puck, he wanted it to be tied to things he could do away from the puck as well.

“In the Minnesota game, he couldn’t handle the puck,” said Cronin. “It kept squirting off his stick. He was flubbing passes, flubbing shots. So I kept telling him on the bench, ‘Stop worrying about the puck. Drive your feet. Try and think about yourself as a forechecking weapon driving your feet, disrupting flow, getting in there instead of valuing yourself on the possession because you’re just having a bad night.’”

Cronin saw a noticeable difference in the game against the Sharks. Carlsson was moving his feet more and “driving it deep.”

“That’s the other thing,” he said. “Is those players can take a message and convert it into action on the ice where some guys need time to exact change.”

For Carlsson, he says the biggest challenge for him in transitioning from the SHL to the NHL has been the speed and talent level. “It’s high here,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest thing. I think it’s more skating in the SHL because of the big ice. It’s a little bit more of a mental battle (in the NHL), how to deal with little mistakes is the most important.”

Even with the time missed due to injury and the now-expired game management plan A.K.A. the “Leo Plan” which saw him sit out back-to-backs and be limited to playing two and then three games a week, Carlsson still sits second among rookies in points per game (0.61).

He ranks seventh on the team in points and fifth in points per game. He’s also seeing plenty of time on the top power-play unit and his vision and playmaking have helped cushion the loss of Trevor Zegras, who is currently on the shelf with a broken ankle.

Carlsson says it was “kind of easy” to agree to the game management plan that was presented to him and his agent Matt Keator by general manager Pat Verbeek before the beginning of the season.

“Totally bought in. We agreed. It was kind of smart because I had a tough summer, not enough training in the offseason. It was good to get the off-ice training in too. That’s one thing I didn’t like (though). It was like one game, then no. That’s probably the biggest thing.”

“I think he’s just a three-zone player,” said Cronin. “He’s very responsible defensively. I think he’s a ‘puck transporter’ as the analytics like to call it. So he’s able to carry the puck really well through the neutral zone. I think he’s got really good awareness in the offensive zone.”

Cronin also said that he thinks Carlsson has to go through some stretches where he doesn’t play well in order to reboot his value system, referencing his previous point about not wanting Carlsson’s values to be tied entirely to doing things with the puck.

Even in a hectic season, Carlsson has still found time to reflect on big moments that he’s had during his first year in the league. Whether it was facing off against his childhood idol Sidney Crosby or playing against Connor Bedard, the player drafted just before him in this past year’s draft.

He also keeps in touch regularly with his parents, who were able to watch him score his first goal in his first NHL game in person but are now back in Sweden. “I talk to them pretty often,” he said. “A lot with my dad of course because he’s a hockey freak too. That’s basically all we talk about is hockey, like the past few games and future plans.”

As for his All-Star break plans? Carlsson said a trip back home is a little too far for such a short amount of time. Instead, he’ll head down to Mexico for a few days with some of his teammates before returning to Southern California next week.

“Going to be fun, I think,” he smiled.