With the twenty first decide of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, the Montreal Canadiens have chosen Michael Hage from the Chicago Metal of the USA Hockey League (USHL)
About Michael Hage
Michael Hage is an intriguing middle prospect from the USHL who put up some sensational numbers for a 17-year-old. Only for reference, he had extra factors (75) in the identical quantity or fewer video games (54) than the next in USHL historical past: Adam Fantilli, Kyle Connor, Johnny Gaudreau, and Brock Boeser. Hage had the seventh-most factors amongst age-17 gamers in USHL historical past, placing him in some elite firm, to say the least.
Associated: 2024 NHL Draft: Reside Tracker
Hage’s offensive upside is straightforward to acknowledge. He’s a terrific skater and sees the ice extraordinarily properly. Regardless that he must work on his defensive sport, a top-six ahead projection appears truthful to him. Will probably be very attention-grabbing to see what sort of participant he can turn out to be with extra improvement in addition to being within the Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation (NCAA) in 2024-25; he dedicated to the College of Michigan.
THW Prospect Profile Excerpt
“Hage is a small ahead who possesses quickness, agility, and intelligence, like most of his friends within the place. Nonetheless, his biggest attribute is his glorious skating means. His pristine edgework and highly effective first three strides permit him to maneuver shortly and overwhelm his opponents. He combines his pace along with his palms to blow by defenders and create quite a few scoring alternatives. He has a novel means of utilizing his palms on his shot, creating dominant deception angles that make it practically unattainable for the goalies to foretell the place his shot is headed. When he combines the deception angles along with his fast launch, the goalie stands no probability of saving the puck when he has the area to shoot.
“Hage reveals a excessive degree of intelligence in all three zones, which is one thing many younger gamers require help with. This allows him to be in the best place on the proper time. It steadily causes opposing groups to lose possession of the puck as he anticipates its trajectory and adopts the suitable angles to chase down opponents. Regardless of his comparatively small dimension, his positioning and arduous work allow him to be efficient in his personal zone. Like most younger gamers, He’s anticipated to develop and develop bodily, which is able to make him a extra well-rounded participant in all aspects of the sport.
Associated: 2024 NHL Draft Information
“With elevated energy, Hage’s shot will turn out to be extra complicated and finally turn out to be a lethal asset. Moreover, his dimension will higher equip him to play towards bigger gamers inside the league and shield the puck extra successfully. He’s a well-respected and outgoing particular person identified by his friends across the rink. If he works arduous to realize energy and dimension, he has the potential to turn out to be a game-changing ahead on the subsequent degree.
Full participant profile may be discovered right here.
How This Impacts the Canadiens’ Plans
Now with a reasonably loaded offense consisting of Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, and extra, the Canadiens’ forwards look fairly stable. They’ve celebrity potential with the primary two, whereas the remaining may be high-end top-six gamers—Hage may be one other.
Hage is a extremely stable worth decide for Montreal with the twenty first decide. Whereas they may have wished a participant like Cole Eiserman to fall to them, they finally did rather well right here. Hage can present them with offensive upside that they might actually use if and when he makes the bounce to the NHL. There’s some second-line upside with the 18-year-old centerman.
