Matt, first-line players normally have to be able to skate -he can't even skate at the NHL level at this point, let alone be looked at as a future first line NHLer. Perhaps he is like a bus, and if he is it's a Hippie bus going 10 miles an hour. With all due respect Matt, you are not a professional scout, and I am basing most of my thoughts on Latendresse based on scout's opinions, not my own.
I saw many a junior player in my younger days that I naively thought would be good NHLers because they were big, and at times dominant at the major junior level. Steve Maltais is a prime example when he played for the Cornwall Royals. He simply dominated other players physically, and he was a pretty good scorer as well. I thought he'd end up being a better NHLer than Matt Schneider, whom the Habs (my team) had drafted. I was wrong. Why? His skating.
Well, scouts are telling me the same thing about Latendresse, and having had the opportunity to see him play on at least a half dozen occasions last season, I agree with them. IMO Bourrett will be a solid second liner some day, while Latendresse will struggle to make the NHL. If he can dramatically improve his skating, he will be a decent second liner someday, a physical presence that can chip in 25-30 goals - but a player on the same level as a Nash, Kovalev, Kovalchuk, Heatley, Hejduk, Tkachuk, Kariya, Samsonov, Palffy, Ovechkin,Lemieux, Gagne, etc. - in other words, a first line winger? I'm extremely skeptical. Those are lofty standards.