Strengths: Hockey IQ, Puck control
Development Opportunities: Size and strength

He’s someone who can fly under the radar if you’re not watching close enough. I think he has that star potential as an offensive star in a draft that has some diverse stylistic players. Michael is behind many others ahead of him currently in size, strength, and willingness to battle in the corners and really dominate physical elements of play. However, Michael has some of the best stickhandling in the draft. He can saucer pass over sticks in motion, shoot from all angles, and glues plays together better than anyone. So many plays for Yale this season were only made possible because Michael used his finesse and control to set up a teammate for high danger. The worry is that others can close on him physically and limit his time as space so he can’t accelerate through the zone more often. Part of me thinks this ranking is very ambitious and the other part of me thinks I’m nowhere near ambitious enough. He has high skills but it’ll just be about if his pacing can allow those skills to be a difference maker.

He’s grown on me a ton over the views this season. In these games, he sometimes showed his biggest value in his puck control for breakouts since he maintains speed through little turns and can pass on the backhand or forehand with a lot of accuracy and softness. While there were some turnovers in the Bishop Kearney game, he’s got such a high-IQ for passing touch in motion which works so well with streaking linemates into the zone. He can feather passes through gaps or make saucer passes over sticks. He’s the type of player who likes to roam through space or fly by and hope to pick pocket instead of engaging physically in open ice to establish position first. I really appreciate overall how smart he is though as he understands positioning both with and without the puck so well. He knows when to drive hard through the middle, stay wide, or find the timing for a net front redirection. The biggest detractors of his game currently are on the physical side of things. I think that’ll come along naturally as he looks to be a more fierce faceoff combatant too. As he matures physically, I think he will take his understanding of gaps and spacing and use that to be the aggressor to win positions more effectively.