| Luke Coughlin | Rimouski Oceanic | QMJHL | L | D | 5’10” | 172 | Rimouski Océanic | Charlottetown, PE | 2005 | 2022-2023: C+ |
Coughlin is a smooth skating undersized left shot defenseman who only began playing on December 2 due to injury. He has excellent four way mobility and shows real deception when making outlets passes. Defensively his quick feet allow him to play with very tight gaps through the neutral zone and the confidence he has in his lateral mobility allows him to force his opponents to make decisions before they are ready.
QMJHL: Rimouski vs Gatineau: December 2, 2022: Coughlin played 15:49 including 1:36 while on the power play. He did not play short handed. He ran the power play from the top of the umbrella. His passes were hard and flat with the deception that literally made the penalty killers spin in circles trying to track his passes. He showed the game awareness to activate into the slot when his man became too focused on the puck. Coughlin has a curl and drag snap shot that was consistently twelve to sixteen inches in the air which created rebounds. We liked how he carried the puck deep on his forehand in a triple threat position as it added more deception to his offensive game. Although he is undersized he finished the game with three hits, three giveaways, eleven takeaways and he won 57% of his puck battles.
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images