Prospect Info: [2024 - 21st] Michael Hage, Chicago Steel (USHL), Committed to U of Michigan

[McGuires Corndog]

Defensive commitment and being harder on his man, stronger on the puck.

But yeah, when he's got the puck on his stick, he's so rangy and skilled.

I should have him take some lessons from my wife

 

[bsl]

Nieds did for sure, so did Nick Lidstrom and of course.. Bobby Orr, on those old awful skates with no support.. incredible. I'm always in awe of the old timers in that awful gear, who look wonderful even by today's standards.

Apparently Orr skated barefoot in his skates.

 

[crosbyshow]

Apparently Orr skated barefoot in his skates.

Bobby Orr is the most talented player ever with Mario Lemieux.

Yes more than Gretzky and Mcdavid

 

[HuGort]

I have seen all the great skaters of their respective times since the mid 1950's: Hull, Keon, Cournoyer, Orr, Perreault, Niedermayer, Gartner, Fedorov, Bure, etc. The best skater I ever saw was Coffey. I never thought I would live to see a better skater than him. Then I saw McDavid skate. And it's not even close. All I can say boys and girls is: if there's ever a better skater than McDavid, let's all hope and pray that he plays for the Canadiens.

Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?

 

[Vachon23]

Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?

Dwight King

 

[ChesterNimitz]

Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?

In my long history of following the Canadiens these are the players who I believe were the team's 'best' skaters, both of their respective eras and irrespective of their eras: Cournoyer, Gainey, Malakhov and Richer.

Honourable Mention (at their peak) : Backstrom, Lafleur, Robinson, Chelios, Courtnall, Petry, Matheson.

Just my opinion.

 

[HuGort]

In my long history of following the Canadiens these are the players who I believe were the team's 'best' skaters, both of their respective eras and irrespective of their eras: Cournoyer, Gainey, Malakhov and Richer.

Honourable Mention (at their peak) : Backstrom, Lafleur, Robinson, Chelios, Courtnall, Petry, Matheson.

Just my opinion.

Murray Wilson was fast skater. Newhook is good skater. Anderson is too. We have a lot of speed on Habs

 

[Favster]

In my long history of following the Canadiens these are the players who I believe were the team's 'best' skaters, both of their respective eras and irrespective of their eras: Cournoyer, Gainey, Malakhov and Richer.

Honourable Mention (at their peak) : Backstrom, Lafleur, Robinson, Chelios, Courtnall, Petry, Matheson.

Just my opinion.

Good list. Paul Byron might be the fastest straight line skater ever on the Habs. He could fly at his peak.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

Murray Wilson was fast skater. Newhook is good skater. Anderson is too. We have a lot of speed on Habs

No doubt. Murray had elite straight forward speed but had the turning radius of the HMS Queen Elizabeth II. Those 1971-1975 era teams had several players that would be fast by even today's standards. Players like Chuck Lefley and Frank Mahovlich,

We had many elite skaters over the past 70 years. We didn’t win 24 Stanley Cups because we were slow.

One of the best skaters I ever saw was Serge Savard before his two devastating leg injuries. His potential was really displayed in the 1969 playoffs when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy. But for those injuries, this Hall of Fame player, may well have equaled or surpassed Orr's brilliance.

 

[HuGort]

No doubt. Murray had elite straight forward speed but had the turning radius of the HMS Queen Elizabeth II. Those 1971-1975 era teams had several players that would be fast by even today's standards. Players like Chuck Lefley and Frank Mahovlich,

We had many elite skaters over the past 70 years. We didn’t win 24 Stanley Cups because we were slow.

One of the best skaters I ever saw was Serge Savard before his two devastating leg injuries. His potential was really displayed in the 1969 playoffs when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy. But for those injuries, this Hall of Fame player, may well have equaled or surpassed Orr's brilliance.

Cournoyer could blend the speed with the shot. He had that quick short stride acceleration.

 

[Zilo44]

Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?

Latendresse?

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Latendresse?

He said fastest, not fatter

 

[mfilipo3]

Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?

Lane Hutson

 

[JianYang]

Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?

Straight line speed, russ courtnall was electric.

In terms of turning on a dime, I'm having trouble thinking of someone better than hutson.

Kovalev had some real tricky feet as well especially for his size.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

Straight line speed, russ courtnall was electric.

In terms of turning on a dime, I'm having trouble thinking of someone better than hutson.

Kovalev had some real tricky feet as well especially for his size.

Demidov seems even better at it

 

[Boris Le Tigre]

Straight line speed, russ courtnall was electric.

In terms of turning on a dime, I'm having trouble thinking of someone better than hutson.

Kovalev had some real tricky feet as well especially for his size.

If the NHL kept statistics on over-skating the puck Courtnall would be the all-time leader. Courtnall was just faster than the puck a lot of the time.

 

[David Suzuki]

Latendresse?

Dougie Murray

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Bobby Orr is the most talented player ever with Mario Lemieux.

Yes more than Gretzky and Mcdavid

That is a silly statement imo....I have watched all 4 and making these comparisons is a waste of time. There is literally nothing that anyone can definitively say that Orr had over McDavid or vice versa due to different equipment, training, nutrition and the enormous disparity in quality of competition.

McDavid is unquestionably at the apex of speed and the ability to do things at top speed. Orr was never pushed to such limits as he only needed to be faster than his excruciatingly slow counterparts who made up the vast majority of the league. We will never know if Orr would have been able to reach these limits and the question is uninteresting because it is impossible to answer.

All four are imo in the same class and that is as far as the conversation should go, as it is such an entirely subjective and bias driven topic.

 

[Tyson]

Bobby Orr is the most talented player ever with Mario Lemieux.

Yes more than Gretzky and Mcdavid

Orr is the greatest ever...proud to have seen him play

 

[JC Superstar]

Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?

I liked Doug Harvey, he was deceivingly fast: you had to see everybody trying to catch up to him to realize how fast he was. And, as far as I'm concerned, he was the original spin-O-rama guy, so he could turn on a dime.

Acceleration wise, Cournoyer was the best; he did get the knickname Roadrunner for a reason.

Lafleur was the best all over the ice skater, I mean like now you see him now you don't type of skater. He would be behind you and get the puck on the board bedore you get there. He would be on your left and then shooting on you right. You would enter the Habs zone all alone and the he would steal your puck.

The Artist reminded me of him at times but those were too few.

And nobody could beat Ralph Backstrom on a race behind the opponent's net: he would go around defencemen like they were pylons. Too bad he couldn't make it his office like Gretzky did.

I was surprised by Biron's acceleration quite a few times, like he had a switch that got on when he touched the puck at the O zone blue line.

And the fastest I ever saw on a loose puck was Steve Shutt: loose a puck on the vicinity of the the O net and there he has been, the red light was on before you realize he had been there.

On the fastest moves on a not so fast skater, Hutson is trying to outplay J.C. Tremblay, which is real delight to me. I once saw Rod Gilbert cutting a pass at his blueline on PK and going full speed for a breakaway less for J.C.: he got passed J.C., alone with Vachon and just when he went to shoot, Vachon uncrouched because J.C. had pickpocketed the puck and was at center ice.

I like Newhook but right now he his faster then the puck, like Cournoyer was in his early years: he would turn on the speed just to drop the puck between his skates.