Actually I see Connor scoring more goals career wise than Laine. Goals are mostly scored in very close range to the net and this is were Connor scores goals. Laine scores long range and he would need to have somewhere in the 17-18% shooting % range unless he dramatically ups his shot total. For some reason the HFJets fan base has soured on their own Guy Lafleur. Not the most complete player but a guy who will likely have multiple 40-50 goal seasons and hit 500 by the time he retires.
This seems a bit hyperbolic? Not the Lafleur part, though that remains to be seen. The souring on Connor? Who's sour on Connor? I honestly don't think I've seen anything really negative on him from anyone here other than perhaps to call his defensive skill into question, which is fair, and almost always is related to Laine's lack of defensive prowess as well.
The Connor vs Laine seems to be a discussion more of the ceiling they achieve in the end. Connor is what he is, which is pretty much as you describe. I'm thrilled he fell in the draft and thrilled he is on this team, signed long term.
Laine on the other hand may indeed be what he is at the moment. On the other hand his physical game, which compared to Connor, he has much more of, is incomplete at this point. That's not a knock on Connor in any way other than to say Connor doesn't seem to have much of a mean streak and isn't inclined to play the body. His size sort of doesn't allow for it. His (Connor's) filthy hands make up for it. Laine though may yet turn into a true power forward, bringing skills to the table that we've only seen flashes of at this point. My viewing on Laine's potential isn't so much that he's going to be Ovi 2.0, though that would be nice. Rather it's that he's going to bring more to the table as he matures, likely including better 'on the fly' offense and a better ability to battle down low. With that should come scoring that's not just long range.
As a knock on Laine he seems to need a particular type of center to excel. He just had no chemistry with Little unfortunately. But I do get excited about the notion of playing with a Statsny now and possibly a Perfetti down the road. If Perfetti can become an effective NHL center then Laine may benefit tremendously. Maybe Laine thrives with those two moving forward. Maybe we should just keep the stud winger that fell into our laps, assuming he and his agent grasp the flat cap/Covid realities.