The biggest guestion mark is your ability to evaluate hockey prospects.
Laine plays small ice game. Through and through. His skating is bit of a question, but not a major weakness. But his style is very well suited for small ice. I honestly don't know if you are being serious anymore. If not, you really should stop polluting threads. If you are, you really should take "hockey 101" and improve your knowledge.
Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't automatically make his statements invalid or false. The way he voiced his opinions were not in any way inflammatory to have you react that way. This is a public forum for all player related discussions, not a "OMG, look at how great Laine is" forum.
Now, to me, skating is not inherently a necessary attribute to be a top player, but certainly it aids.
To me, for a goal scorer, it's important to be a quick and explosive skater. It's because as a goal scorer, you are always darting in and out of the dead areas of the ice looking for the prime area to score. It's important because it allows you to pounce on loose pucks and skate up ice on the counter. I can't think of a ton of goal scorers in the league that aren't great skaters; Benn, Pavelski...
It's different for playmakers who rely on a different skillset. Playmakers tend to slow down the game, draw attention away from their intended targets, use their bodies to shield the puck, etc. That's why it's much less important for playmakers to be great skaters.
Laine is a relatively good skater for his size, but I wouldn't say that he's a good or great skater in general. It doesn't mean that he won't have success at the NHL level, but it might mean that the way he produces will follow a different mold than some of the other established goal scorers like Ovechkin do. Certainly he can improve his skating, but people often profoundly overestimate how much better a player's skating can improve.
