2012 NHL Draft Eligible Prospect Profile: Scott Laughton – Oshawa Generals

Photo courtesy of the Oshawa Generals official website

By Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell)

As we inch closer and closer to the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, I’ll continue to plug away at as many prospect profiles on the top draft eligible players from the Ontario Hockey League as I can. All of my 2012 draft eligible prospect profiles can be found at the bottom of the article.

Without further ado, here is my prospect profile on 2012 draft eligible forward Scott Laughton of the Oshawa Generals.

Scott Laughton
Age – 18
Position – Center
Height – 6′ 1″
Weight – 178
Draft Projection: 24-30th overall
OHL Team: Oshawa Generals
2012 Regular Season Statistics: 21 goals, 32 assists, 53 points, plus-8, 101PIM, 64 games played
2012 Playoff Statistics: two goals, three assists, 5 points, minus-5, 17PIM, 6 games played
NHL Comparable(s) – Mike Richards
Upside – 7.5/10

Strengths – Laughton is a good, physical two-way forward who isn’t afraid to play a nasty style of game. He’ll hit you, he’ll fight you, he will outwork you and he’ll never take a shift off. His work ethic and drive in general is outstanding. Simply put, he’s a guy that players hate to play against. He’s a very good player at both ends of the ice. He can produce on the powerplay, play in a shut down role, or kill penalties. He’s very versatile in that regard. While his offensive abilities, and numbers, won’t ‘wow’ you, he does have good vision, a good shot and an above average skill set which should help him produce in the National Hockey League.

Weaknesses – Laughton is a pretty well rounded player, but one aspect of his game that he could work on is his skating ability. His skating isn’t bad, but some more jump and explosiveness in his first three steps would really help his game out.

Career Projection – Second line (#2) center – Taking everything into consideration, Laughton projects to be a solid line two center that can play in any situation. While his skill set is above average, I don’t think he should be relied upon to produce big numbers in a primary scoring role.

2012 Draft Eligible Prospect Profiles: 

Tom Wilson – Plymouth Whalers

Slater Koekkoek – Peterborough Petes

Cody Ceci – Ottawa 67′s

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