Michael Hage: “He could have been a top-10 pick had it not been for his injury in 22-23”.

The draft year for the various young players available in the next National Hockey League draft is an extremely important one.

It’s the year when all eyes are on them throughout the season, and so it’s the time to perform as well as possible and impress scouts and analysts.

The same can be said for the season leading up to draft eligibility.

Prospects are already being watched and scrutinized by many scouts and analysts, so they need to demonstrate that they’ll be able to raise their game the following season when they become eligible for the draft.

Unfortunately, these hopefuls are never immune to injury or any other situation detrimental to their CVs.

Indeed, it often happens that a prospect drops several places in the various prospect rankings due to injury.

This year, this was the case for Michael Hage, the prospect the Montreal Canadiens finally drafted at the 21ᵉ echelon.

Indeed, had it not been for his nasty injury during his rookie season in 2022-2023, Michael Hage could very likely have been drafted in the top-10 or just outside of it.

Doing an AMA on @HabsOnReddit now, so come join: https://t.co/oE50fliqLk

– Steven Ellis (@SEllisHockey) July 26, 2024

That’s what prospect analyst Steven Ellis reported when answering questions from Habs fans on Reddit.

For Ellis, it’s clear that Hage would have been in the running to be drafted in the top-10 in the recent draft if he hadn’t been injured in his rookie season.

He missed a lot of games, some 40, in the 2022-2023 season with the Chicago Steel in the USHL, which took him off the radar somewhat.

His injury undoubtedly worried many scouts about his development, which pushed Hage down the various rankings.

Yet he still managed 10 points (five goals and five assists) in 13 games.

In short, Hage has been unlucky in recent years and months with his injury during his rookie season in the USHL and the death of his father, but in the end, it all led to his dream of being drafted by the Canadiens.

According to Ellis, once again, the Habs have made a very good move in acquiring a natural scorer with a solid skating stroke who also likes to check.

He’ll need to bulk up a bit more and learn to use his size more, but as of today, it’s clear that Hage has a good chance of one day becoming a second-line center (or simply a player) with the Tricolore.

In short, if Hage has a solid NCAA rookie season with the University of Michigan this year, he could make many teams regret not selecting him sooner.

Note that the Habs prospect also had a solid development camp.

Overtime

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– A heartbreaking defeat for the Canadian.

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