The issue is that Perfetti has been one of Canada's best performers not playing on the first line and him riding the pine seems to be based on nothing more then his age and the fact that he isn't in the NHL yet.
Go check out that World Championship thread - I posted the stats. If Perfetti hadn't scored the GWG in their first win there would have been no chance for Canada to reach the playoffs. He is Canada's 7th best scorer with only 1 player having less min/game... And 2 players with less total minutes. He's better than most of the guys there...
Perfetti has been very good defensively, he has only been on the ice for two goals against and one was the Kuemper misadventure behind his own net early in the RR game against the US. He is a "0" for plus minus when, as you can see above, many players are a minus for the tournament.
In the RR he played between 8-12 mins a game and on the PP2. He was running the halfway on the PP and 5 on 5 created offensive opportunities for himself and his teammates. He scored the GWG in the third period of a must win game against Kazakhstan and even was on the ice late in periods and games.
It seems that the staff has decided to roll the 4 lines and not play the 13th forward which until the playoffs was never Cole.
The only plausible explanation for it being him is age, experience and being the only non NHL forward. I have to assume that there were promises made to players when convincing them to come over to Europe after a long year in a pandemic. NHL guys didn't come over to sit on the bench.
Number 22 has played 50% more ice, has zero goals, zero assists and is a minus 4
Number 27 has played 55% more ice, has zero goals, zero assists and is a minus 5
Number 17 has played 50% more ice, has one goal (EN), zero assists and is a minus 1
Number 13 has played 55% more ice, has zero goals, one assist and is a minus 3.
Both the eye test and the stats suggest Cole should be playing ahead of at least one of them but age, experience and promises are keeping him on the bench IMO.
This should be great development for him and will help be more ready to play at the next level after playing and practicing with and against NHLers for the last 3 weeks.