The Michigan Wolverines and Michael Hage were playing their last two games before the Christmas break this weekend by taking on Michigan State. The Montreal Canadiens’ prospect team could only manage a split with a 3-0 win on Friday night and a 3-1 loss on Saturday night.

Hage registered an assist in both games, but it was in Saturday’s loss that he made a great play, setting up linemate Will Horcoff with a clever back pass. With those two assists, Hage now has 28 points in 20 games and finds himself in a three-way tie in the scoring race alongside his linemates Horcoff and T.J. Hughes.

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Hage, a first-round pick for the Canadiens at the 2024 draft, is likely to turn pro at the end of this season, and the hope is that he’ll eventually be able to act as the Habs’ second-line center, behind captain Nick Suzuki.

Montreal has been looking for a second-line center for quite some time, even before Kent Hughes took over from Marc Bergevin, but trading for one has proven to be quite tricky. Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook have struggled to establish themselves as real pivots in the NHL, both struggling with faceoffs. With both of them sidelined by injuries right now, though, Oliver Kapanen has proven to be an interesting alternative.

A second-round pick at the 2021 draft, the 22-year-old has been playing with Ivan Demidov since the start of the season, and there’s an undeniable chemistry between the two. Kapanen has 14 points in 27 games; he’s sixth in the rookie scoring race but is in a three-way tie for most goals scored by a rookie with eight.

While injuries are never a good thing for any team, the Habs’ current predicament has forced the coaching staff to give the youngster more responsibilities with very good results. There is something to be said about giving players a real opportunity in an offensive role. In the last few years, the Canadiens have traded two players with impressive offensive upside that was left untapped in Montreal: Artturi Lehkonen and Emil Heineman.

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