With his second pick of the day – and the 103rd overall pick at the 2013 NHL Draft – Kings GM Dean Lombardi selected Justin Auger from the Ontario Hockey League.
He’s a 6-foot-6 right wing who played the last two seasons with the Guelph Storm, former home of LA captain Dustin Brown and defenseman Drew Doughty.
This past season Auger had 33 points (16 goals and 17 assists) in 68 games. During his rookie year of 2011-12, he posted 14 points (seven goals and seven assists) in 58 games.
Growing up, his favorite team was the Toronto Maple Leafs and his favorite player was Mike Richards.
From the Draft Preview up on the OHL Prospects Blog:
“Can be a real load for defenseman to handle in the corners and in front of the net. In particular, his work on the cycle is impressive. His long reach and improving strength make him a very difficult player to separate from the puck…His skating is still an issue, but it DEFINITELY improved this year…Improving those first few steps will be the key to increasing his offensive production.”
That sort of makes him sound like Michael Schumacher 2.0 – the kid LA drafted in 2011 and then released last month when they didn’t offer him a contract.
Video profile:
Auger is on twitter, follow him here.
As of this post, Lombardi and LA still have six more picks to work with today. See the full story at the link below.
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About John Hoven
His skating looks fine to me, very shifty. Nice set of hands on him.