Something VERY special is unfolding in Montreal right now...

Something very special is brewing in Montreal after the scrimmage session in Brossard. LJ Moody puts on a show like you wouldn't believe with some skating and some shootout moves that just had everyone in awe, but it's not just him showing out today. We also have incredible performances from the 6'5 Tyler Thorpe with the silky mitts in close. We saw him last year in the preseason at Development Camp, and he is showing something truly special, even topping it off here with this beautiful snipe on the breakaway. and Michael Hage once again was a standout amongst his peers so many good signs that something insanely special is brewing even without Sharovsky there even without even looking at the current roster a bunch of stuff to get into all coming up in this episode of Habs Digest and we're going to start though Jesse with something else we saw today now this is a little thing to start with here but Kirby Dach and Ivan Demidov were skating before the goalies hit the ice at the development camp today now it wasn't like a drill or anything they weren't just skating on a line together it's just they were both on the ice at the same time and you have to wonder right you have to wonder is these two guys on the ice at the same time is it a coincidence probably kirby's still rehabbing ivan is still putting in some work but this is something that i've come to believe very well could happen next year and honestly it's just one of these things is planting that seed in my mind man but like i'm starting to believe that this could be a really fun duo even if we if we do get to see them by the time the season rolls around and it's cool to see because we haven't seen this yet this is the first time Demidov and Demi and Kirby that we're getting the footage of them here together out on the ice and of course not hard to find Ivan Demidov at the rink of course he loves training all year round but really nice to see that of course you know we're seeing that Kirby's been putting in the work in the offseason especially conditioning in the gym as well so again this is a good look obviously hockey players it's changed from before it's really like 365 all year round where they're really training that's obviously this the level of the NHL is just so high again with Kirby there's there's so many x factors there's so many questions but there is the potential for him to be the feel-good story of this next year for the Montreal Canadiens if he can find a way to make it work it's really going to be make or break this year there's definitely he's going to have some hurdles to kind of overcome but i mean if he can do it like the reward is going to be massive not only for him but for this team as well yeah i agree and you know there were some highlights going around today of 2022-23 Kirby doc fond memories of that jesse the first season that we started covering the Habs on this channel and watching him go to the net with the force that he had so many times is something that i feel like has been sorely missed since that first injury and i can't wait to see what a fully healthy kirby looks like again so leave your thoughts on this down below i know nothing huge to glean from this but it's just It's something. It's them on the ice together, starting to plant those seeds in our minds, so it could be something very fun, but let's get into the prospects today, and I don't even know where to start. You know, I think we'll save our boys LJ Mooney and Thorpe for a bit later, but we gotta highlight one of the biggest standouts of today, Jesse, and it's not because he was flashy, but it's Michael Hage, and I wanna start this by giving some good news that he has been invited by Hockey Canada to the World Junior Summer Showcase. Now, Hage himself confirmed this yesterday, but Scott Wheeler officially posted this today, And we know the disrespect he got and some other Canadian players who were playing in the NCAA last year. It led to a pretty poor World Juniors performance. Just saying, Hage would have been great. But, I mean, as Stu Cowan said, by the way, some of the videos used in the intro and stuff that we're seeing does come from Stu Cowan's Twitter, which is a fantastic follow, as you should. Of course, Montreal Gazette legend. The best word to describe Michael Hage is smooth. Everything he does is just smooth. And that's exactly what we're seeing on the ice. Even Hage himself said he can be a creative player that makes plays be physical. You never know what your role will be in your first two to three years. so you have to be a guy that the coach can put you on the ice and know what to expect and he has been so so so awesome to watch Jesse and i mean watching these drills where he's playing keep away everything about Michael Hage has stood out to me at this development camp just in the sense that he looks more mature than almost anyone else there yeah patient is a great way to describe smooth is a great way to describe Josh but i have to be like patient i love like the way you said like the keep away because it's so true because he's poised out with the on the ice where he's not gonna rush to kind of make a decision right away he's okay to kind of hold on to it see how the play develops and go from there and let alone from the scrimmages which of course he's been fantastic in he's been a standout in a lot of the drills um coming into along with LJ Mooney whether it's the one-on-ones it's the breakouts the two-on-twos etc just basically every single sort of play really him and and Hage and Mooney have really been two of the major standouts in that side of that component really getting to showcase that skill again amazing see i just get excited just see him in Montreal developing right because this is a player that just he's got so many dangles he can make defenders look foolish out of the ice we've even without throwing shade maybe did that a couple times so a couple defenders here in this very short development cap like josh i'm just getting hyped already because like with all these players in the NCAA it just gets realer when we see them in Montreal and then there was okay like the skill is for real where we're seeing it happen and I mean just so just really gets us excited for what is to come in the future especially these hype prospects when they're coming in and they're straight up looking like one of the best people there it's not like he fell by the wayside like and again I don't want to throw too much shade to some people but like there's some guys I would have wished to see a little bit more from today I mean look Bogdan's one of them as much as I'm one of the part of the Bogdan fan club a little bit I thought he was solid I you know you want to see like him up at that age level I don't think he was bad by any means don't get me wrong I was just like you know I was waiting you know to see him but like Michael Hage himself was one of those guys that the bar was here and he absolutely hit it and that's what i love to see from Michael Hage and that's what i think will come with his future with Montreal so Michael Hage one of these guys i cannot wait to see him at Michigan this year Jesse but uh look speaking of Michigan I thought it was a weird transition I wouldn't shock me if this next guy pulled this off at some point in the league and just we got to get to our boy LJ Mooney and this guy I don't even understand like this skill level for where he was in his position in the draft Jesse it's all coming back here now the Habs getting the smaller guy later in the draft look I know his defense is not super amazing but he lays the body like crazy his skill is insane pulling off a Kucherov here like it's just nuts to be able to do this and his Lane Hudson-esque little up pivots little skates making defenders look foolish again not at that level but Jesse LJ Mooney to me I mean we talked about him yesterday saying look he's a he likes Cole Caulfield a lot he loves it just to try and prove people wrong again in terms of every drill he stood out a ton and honestly I was a bit surprised to see it I know his size is a limiting factor but I feel like we've heard that before and this guy is destined to prove other people wrong yeah that's one thing for him for sure and you have to feel like one thing is that he was just getting praises all the way around whether it's from Ramage or from Bouillon where really they're saying that this guy is dancing out there kind of a lot like Lane Hudson in terms of like the head fakes and and really just standing out just all over the ice just really incredible to see again pulling the coochie here absolutely unreal and again like just the pace and that level of skill like this was a draft josh where like a lot of guys were really a lot of teams were really emphasizing size because of the Florida Panthers and the recent Stanley Cup win this is a reason why he dropped down maybe again a little bit later than he should of course he's still gonna have to kind of find a way to kind of fit into today's NHL that being said it's like this guy's just got all the skill in the world yeah I mean the the potential is crazy high but like will he ever even make the NHL right how many crazy skilled guys like you know another guy Sean Farrell insanely skilled put up crazy numbers looked impressive that's a fantastic year last year in Laval right so he could still be on that track but again the size is something that's limited him and you know the ability to deploy him in a bunch of different situations but all I'm saying is I'm pretty optimistic for where we got him in the draft Jesse to be able to see this kind of offense right now is really unbelievable plus he seems like such a fun guy already a fan favorite pulling this off leave your love for LJ Moody down below but going to the other end of the spectrum here height wise a guy who is 10 inches taller nearly a full foot taller is Tyler Thorpe and i know jesse he had an incredible goal against the Leafs i think it was preseason last year maybe one of those development games but this guy i know we throw the term unicorn around for like flory and jack guy but we have heard so much about Tyler Thorpe i don't want to say he is a unicorn but to be 6'5 to have the kind of shot he has which was the big thing when he was drafted size and shot is crazy but then to see him have these kind of silky mitts which is not just a one-off that we're seeing here it's something that we've seen since the moment we drafted him again his goals per game went down this past year but 27 goals with the Vancouver Giants two assists in his only game with Laval last year I think a full year in Laval Jesse well I guess he's this year at 6'4 you can see 6'4 6'5 is going to do him incredible wonders this might just be look we have so many amazing fun prospects but one of these like sleeper picks if you can call it that for maybe other fans who don't really know much about him this is a guy that i think can end up making some noise i mean whether him popanicus florian one of these guys you got a chance to have another like real unicorn and there's been some ups and downs his development but i mean that's par for the course as a prospect and there's still lots of time for tyler thorpe to really turn out to be an impact bottom six player for this team and i mean at six foot five again you know with that size like this is a guy that really gets up and down the ice really easy not a problem at all he finished a basically a no look pass from lj mooney earlier in this showing off that amazing shot again but with that size we're showing with that those silky mitts where it's really allowing that reach to kind of get the goalie to kind of get moving again a little bit of movement there to open up that that five hole there um so again this is a player that you have to feel from last year's draft that you kind of want to see him rebound he didn't have maybe have the strongest year of development but again that's par for it there's ups and downs especially being for a bigger guy we know it takes them a little bit longer to develop but it's really so nice to see at this camp where we're seeing those upside those flashes of brilliance of really what can further develop in his game yeah i mean i i don't know i don't want to lock him into a bottom six role yet but like it feels like it doesn't it like it just a lot of these guys it's it's so hard to say i mean when we look at our bottom six like how many of these guys can actually be nhl level talents that's the big question it's like because most of these guys like we say always like probably won't get there I mean I'd like to see Thorpe I mean he does have a decent edge to his game but if he can start laying the body like Florian like some of these other guys hey his ceiling is really really high as well but listen that that'll have to do it here there's so many other guys we could talk about from this camp I mean Papandek has had a good time there's so many other guys and leave your thoughts on anyone in this video anyone from the camp down below we're going to be covering all the things that are coming out from Habs camp and all this stuff this summer so if you want to stay tuned hit that button down below but that'll do it for this episode if you enjoyed leave a like while you're at it we really appreciate you tuning in every single day. I'm Josh Goss, my co-host Jesse Pauly. We'll catch you in the next one.