Nic Hague Focuses on Improving Skating Abilities

Drafting a player, most often, is about progression. Not where he is on draft day but where can he be in three and five years down the road.
One year into the Nic Hague experiment and already he's moved well beyond where he was on the day the Vegas Golden Knights selected him early in the second round at 34th overall of the 2017 NHL Draft.

Hague arrived at development camp last summer and at 6'6" there were a lot of moving parts. His skating was a little busy and not as efficient as required at the NHL level. A year later and with a brilliant season in the Ontario Hockey League behind him, Hague looks like a more polished player. Hague was named the Canadian Hockey League defenseman of the year after scoring 35 goals and 78 points for the Mississauga Steelheads.
"I want to make sure I get Scott Jones out there because he has done a great job with all of our guys. Scott noticed it right away that Nic was real busy, that would be the word I would use, with his upper body, last summer," said Golden Knights director of player development Wil Nichol. "His arms were kind of all over the place, unnecessary movement, and not efficient. Because of that his balance was thrown off. So, it all kind of worked together, against him. Nic made the adjustments. Scott said, 'he is never going to have to be the fastest skater, he just has to be able to play against the fastest skaters.' He is getting to that point. He has made some really good strides."
The 2017 draft may be one Golden Knights fans look back on as a key step toward a championship. GM George McPhee was able to draft four players within the first 34 selections, including Hague.
One year later and Vegas has Hague, Zach Whitecloud, Erik Brannstrom, Dylan Coghlan and Jake Bischoff all pushing to play for the Chicago Wolves of the AHL or perhaps even one of the group cracking the big club's roster.
Hague is in fast company.
"He has things you can't teach. Offensive instincts, what he did this year numbers-wise, set some records. You can't teach 6'5-6'6, he is right around 215-220lbs and going to get stronger," said Nichol. "So, when you are thinking 2-3 years down the road and you combine that with this kid want to get better all the pieces are there. Leadership is outstanding. He is one of those kids the other players gravitate to. In fact, I just grabbed him because I needed him to follow through on a task and I know he is going to do it. He just has natural leadership in him."
Hague says he left development camp last year knowing his skating had to get better and he's made it a priority ever since.
"I definitely think skating was an area of my game I had to improve on if I wanted to make the jump to pro which I'm hoping to do next season," said Hague. "It's been the main focus of my training the last couple of years and its continued to be a big focus on my training as I move forward now for this summer. I think it's something I'm always trying to think about whenever I step on the ice, just focus on the little things I can do to improve and I definitely think it's come a long way. Obviously, there's still room to improve like there always is for a guy like me but I think I've made huge improvements.
"I was working with a skating coach last summer before I was drafted here and then after I was drafted I had the opportunity to work with Scott Jones on my skating. All season, he'd come to Mississauga and work with me and we'd do video and really break it down and do what seemed like pretty fundamental stuff just to figure out different areas within my skating that I could improve on, whether it's the transition game of the first couple of strides to get going quicker. Now he's just giving me little tips to focus on. Now whenever I step on the ice, I feel like I've gone through it so much with him that they're just ingrained in the back of my head and it's always something I'm thinking about on the ice, I'm aware of it and conscious of it to make sure I'm not falling into old habits and continue to do the right things. I think, based on that and the work I've been able to do, it's been a big help for me."
Hague joined the Chicago Wolves at the end of last season and suited up with the AHL club for five games. It gave him a window into his future.
"What I realized at the end of the year when I went to Chicago was that guys are big now and I'm not playing against 16 and 17-year-olds anymore. I'm not always the biggest guy on the ice like it was in junior and the games I played in Chicago I realized that everyone's grown up, everyone's strong, everyone's got man muscle," said Hague. "That was something for me I noticed. Puck battles are a lot more intense, guys hit a lot harder, the game moves a lot faster and everyone is so much more experienced and is so much stronger and I thought that was a big thing. I was happy to go out there and get my feet wet there and learn what I need to do to play at that level full-time. It kickstarted my summer because I have a lot to work on and if I just work on these things I'll hopefully be able to translate my game I played in junior as best as I can to the pro level as well."