Michael Hage is doing well in his first year in the NCAA.
He collected 24 points (eleven goals) in his first 21 games of the season and he proves that CH does not look crazy by having selected him with the 21st pick in the last draft.
When you see him score goals like this, you realize he has talent:
Seeing him being good at the university level, it is normal to think that he has a chance of signing his first contract with the Canadian at the end of his club’s season in the NCAA.
That would allow him to make the jump to the pros quickly.
But Hage – in an interview with Guillaume Lepage (NHL) – maintains that there is nothing urgent at the moment. He will sign his contract when the Canadian tells him that he is ready to do so.
And his trainer (who also met Guillaume Lepage) seems to be of the same opinion.
Before thinking about the idea of seeing his protégé leave the university circuit to play professionally, Brandon Naurato would like the Canadian’s hope to start dominating (in a frank way) the NCAA:
He does very well in terms of production. But he doesn’t dominate matches.
Ryan Leonard dominates games. Lane Hutson, last year, dominated the games. This is the next step for Michael to achieve. –Brandon Naurato
The coach is right. And Rob Ramage, the Canadiens’ director of player development, shares this opinion too:
Michael Hage’s coach knows that his player has talent.
After all, Brandon Naurato doesn’t understand Canada’s decision to ignore Hage for the last World Junior Championship and according to him, the Canadian’s prospect would be a player of around 150 points per season if he played in the CHL .
But the coach’s comments make sense because to make the jump to the pros at such a young age, a player has to be too good for the league in which he plays.
-Hage is having a great season and there is no doubt about that. But he does not dominate and we must not forget either that the Canadian’s hope is only 18 years old.
He will celebrate his 19th birthday in April (the 14th)…
Could a second year in the NCAA hurt him? In my eyes, not necessarily.
We all can’t wait to see him arrive in Montreal and that’s normal, but a second university season would allow him to gain strength (and maturity) and it would give him the opportunity to be ready for the expected moment.
The CH took this direction with Cole Caufield a few years ago, we saw it with Lane Hutson recently and we see it at the moment with Jacob Fowler.
This is not a disavowal because letting a 19-year-old develop another year in the NCAA is nothing abnormal. It’s one of the best leagues in the world to develop a guy because there’s talent and because the guys have the opportunity to play against older players.
If Hage played junior, he would make the jump to the pros after his age 19 season… And that’s where the idea of seeing him stay a second year in the NCAA makes perfect sense.
Unless it starts to be REALLY dominant by the end of the season at Michigan!
In burst
– You have to do it.
– Nice list.
– He looks in good shape.
– Please note:
– Not a surprise.
