Olympic Break Top 10 Habs Prospects: #1 Michael Hage

After coming into the season as the team’s 3rd best prospect, Hage has moved up to the very top of the list thanks to improving his game in nearly every way. After a 5-assist weekend in 2 games against Penn State, Hage now has 12 goals, 30 assists, and 42 points in 30 games this season. He has surpassed his 21 assists and 34 points in 33 games as a freshman quite easily thanks to the continuous improvement of his playmaking abilities.

Hage’s goal scoring hasn’t taken as significant a step forward, but he should surpass his freshman goal-scoring totals within the next few games. However, the Habs prospect will be more of a playmaker once he turns pro at the end of the season.

Everything about his game screams that he has the potential to be a star playmaker for the Canadiens that could end up being a great fit in between Ivan Demidov and Juraj Slafkovsky for the long-term future. Much like both those wingers, Hage thrives on being a play driver, but he does it from the middle as a centre, which gives him more space to feed either Slafkovsky or Demidov for deadly scoring chances. Not to mention his incredible hands make him a great player in tight.

The Habs prospect will also provide the team with another great offensive centre that can quarterback a power play the way Nick Suzuki does by starting off all the passing plays and developing more offence for the 2nd power play unit. This may lead to the Canadiens scrambling players around on the power play so they have 2 nearly equal units on the main advantage. In fact, it was the World Juniors that really drew notice to exactly what Hage can do on the power play, where he was able to showcase his tremendous vision by setting up his teammates for big goals.

In fact, the way he moved the puck looked very similar to how Suzuki creates plays on the man advantage by getting the puck on the half wall for a dual threat situation where he could both shoot and pass it. His power play production played a huge factor in why he led the entire 2026 World Junior Championship with 2 goals, 13 assists, and 15 points in 7 games. It seemed like Hage was involved in nearly every power play goal for Canada during the tournament.

Hage has also improved a lot on the defensive side of the puck over his past 2 years at Michigan, which should carry over to his habits at the pro level. Therefore, moving Oliver Kapanen out of the current 2nd line centre once he’s ready shouldn’t hurt the defensive side of the game for the Habs’ top 6 forward group. His defensive game may not be a strength, but it’s good enough to lead an offensive line as a centre.

The one weakness that he will need to improve before he can be a star centre in the NHL someday is his faceoff abilities. However, this is something that often gets better as a player gets older, and it’s normal for a young centre to have some issues on faceoffs. It also isn’t something that hinders his game that much.

Over the past year, his consistency to be at the top of his game has improved tremendously as well, which was often an issue last season, as well as earlier in the year. Consistency was a big question at some point with Hage, but it no longer seems to be an issue, which should be the difference between a good player and becoming a star.

Where he is now in his development and the potential of the player that he could become are two reasons why Hage is the #1 prospect in the Habs pipeline currently. There is no doubt that he should be in the NHL at the start of next season.

Is Michael Hage the top prospect in your Habs prospect rankings, or do you have someone else ahead of him?

Click here to view the article on the #2 prospect, Jacob Fowler.