Welcome back to Across The Border, where we take a look at the Montreal Canadiens’ prospects playing in the U.S. and track their progression throughout the year.
The 2024-25 NCAA campaign is finally under way, and the Habs have more than their fair share of skin in the game. Michael Hage is taking his first steps in college hockey, Jacob Fowler is looking to establish himself as the NCAA’s best goaltender, and some mid-rounders are also looking to make a name for themselves this year.
We’ll start off with Hage and Fowler, and work our way to Sam Harris and Logan Sawyer’s starts to the season.
Michael Hage
C — University of Michigan
After scoring 75 points in 54 USHL games in his draft year with the Chicago Steel, Hage still headed into college with foggy expectations. Would he tear it up, or struggle to adapt? Would he play down the middle, or on the wing? Top six, or third line?
So far, Hage has proved to be a legitimate game-breaker for the Michigan Wolverines as a top-six centre. Through four games, the Canadiens’ 21st-overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft has amassed three goals and three assists, placing him in the top 10 league-wide and first on his team.
What’s more, every one of Hage’s points seems to highlight a different area of strength in his game. If it isn’t stealing a puck on the forecheck to score like he does in the clip above, it’s using his strong crossover skating to gain speed through the neutral zone before firing in-motion through an inside drive. Playmaking-wise, Hage has varied his attacks rather than doing everything at his top speed. He has shown a growing ability to delay, play one-touch hockey, or create with look-off passes.
These are areas that he only started to explore midway through his draft year, and his improvements through trial and error led to him scoring 31 points in his last 16 games to end that season. The most difficult challenge was always going to be to tailor those newfound concepts and ideas to the NCAA’s pace and find a way to fit them inside team structures — both his and his opponent’s. So far, Hage has overcome that challenge brilliantly.
Hage’s rapid addition of translatable skills, his growing playmaking and forechecking game, as well as his ability to adapt his game to a higher level of competition so quickly provide a lot of promise as to what comes next. If his physical game can improve — he still hasn’t figured out how to better use his 6’1″, 190-pound frame — there is little in the way of Hage becoming a star in the Habs’ top six who will inject a Kirby Dach-adjacent level of speed and skill.
Jacob Fowler
G — Boston College
Fowler’s freshman NCAA campaign saw him put up a 2.14 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage in 39 games for the powerhouse Boston College Eagles. Heading into his sophomore year with a team that kept most of its defence core, the expectation facing Fowler was for him to put up similar or better results this season.
In the season-opener against Trey Augustine’s Michigan State Spartans, the NCAA’s premier goalie duel was back on, and Fowler won it cleanly with a 24-save shutout in which he showcased some key improvements.
As a heavier goaltender, Fowler’s challenge has always been pure athleticism. The rest of his game has been solid from day one: puck-tracking, composure, technique, post integration, footwork and awareness were areas of strength. But he struggled to move his weight around quickly or contort to make difficult saves. Through one game, it’s already clear that Fowler has either lost some weight or greatly improved his lower-body strength over the off-season.
He did follow that shutout up by allowing four goals against that same Spartans team, bringing his save percentage to a very familiar .925, but he still looked great in that game. Fowler keeps getting better, and with a great team in front of him yet again this year, he can hope for another shot at the championship that eluded him in the finals last spring.
Sam Harris
LW — University of Denver
After being drafted as an over-ager in the fifth round of the 2023 NHL Draft, Harris made an immediate jump to the NCAA and became about as good a bottom-six scorer as the championship-winning Denver Pioneers could ask for. With 14 goals and 21 points in 42 games, Harris set the table for a potential offensive eclosion as graduations could potentially push him further up the lineup.
So far, he’s still their third-line left winger, but with a slightly better supporting cast. Third-year collegiate Samu Salminen and freshman Hagen Burrows were his linemates in game one, before freshman Jake Fisher was promoted to third-line centre in game two. This led to a more aggressive off-puck mindset from Harris, who capitalized with two goals in the first game of the back-to-back against a struggling Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves team.
It’s early, but Harris is setting himself up for another strong season as a third-liner. By next season, there won’t be much in his way to a top-six role, with Jack Devine and captain Carter King graduating in the spring. In the meantime, expect Harris to either put up similar numbers, or possibly earn his way onto the second line and pop off offensively.
Logan Sawyer
LW — Providence College
After performing well in the BCHL with the Brooks Bandits, Sawyer had to wait quite a while to get his first taste of NCAA hockey. The Providence College Friars’ first game of the season was on Saturday, and the Habs’ third-round pick struggled in his debut.
Although Sawyer’s playmaking game has translated decently well, the rest of his game hasn’t, which limits the passes he has access to. His skating is a real area of concern at this level — a slow pace, an average motor, and bad skating mechanics is a combination that rarely turns out well in the NHL. He lost his puck battles regularly due to unrefined physical mechanics, which he could get away with at the Junior A level but simply don’t work against the NCAA’s bigger and more experienced skaters.
The path to long-term success for Sawyer flows through his cerebral nature on and off the puck, but his skating will need to improve. He is in one of the best pipelines to grow in that regard — Lane Hutson’s improvements are a prime example of that — but will need a hands-on approach to his development in order to see enough improvement. If he can become at least an NHL-average skater, there is room for a third-line projection due to the offensive skill, defensive work rate, and above-average processing that he boasts.
Thanks for reading — follow me on Twitter @HadiK_Scouting for more prospects-related content, and to keep up with the rest of my work!