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NHL Draft Prospect Profile: Kale Clague

AJ Haefele

June 21, 2016

Get to Know Kale Clague

Date of Birth: 6/5/1998
Place of Birth: Regina, SK, CAN
Ht: 6’0″ Wt: 183 lbs
Shoots: Left
Position: Defense
Team (League): Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)

Statistics

What Scouts See

Curtis Joe, Elite Prospects:

An offensive defenseman in nature, Clague is a tantalizing blend of speed, cunning, and craftiness. Very smooth skater that is mobile at a professional level. Great vision and is able to control plays with the puck on his stick. Creative passer. Will need to work on his shot and consistency moving forward, but has the undeniable raw skills and fundamental attributes of a puck-moving offensive defenseman. All-in-all, a highly skilled defenseman that has the potential to be a proficient producer from the back end.

Last Word on Sports:

Kale Clague is an outstanding skater. He has great top-end speed and acceleration in both directions allowing him to be an effective two-way defender. He can join the rush or make pinches in the offensive zone and still get back quickly on defence. He pairs the speed with good agility, pivots, and balance. This allows him to cover a huge amount of ice and transition quickly and easily from defence to offence or vice versa.

What BSN Avalanche sees

Clague is your classic offensive defenseman in every sense. He couples explosive skating with an aggressive mindset to zip around the ice and be wherever he wants to be. He’s a natural power play quarterback, with a good slapshot and great vision to go along with high-end passing ability. He makes NHL passes today. Another big plus for me is him playing for Brandon, which has churned out a number of quality defensemen in recent years. Receiving that level of coaching at junior is nothing but an advantage moving forward.

As your classic offensive defenseman, Clague struggles in his own at times. He’s not a physical player at all and relies mostly on his stick play to succeed. He battles hard along the boards and it’s clear he’s been well-coached to succeed in his own way but moving forward to pro hockey he’s going to have to learn to battle more physically. His skating has given him a bit of overconfidence that he can chase pucks in his own end and still get back to position before it hurts him.

Highlights

NHL Potential

Is he Stefan Elliott or Tyson Barrie? That’s really the question here with Clague that has stuck with me throughout my scouting of him. He has all the potential in the world to be either. He either figures it out, gains the confidence to be himself and becomes Barrie or he gets stuck in his own head too often and holds himself back from reaching his potential like Elliott.

Expected Draft Position

Clague’s rankings have him pretty solidly in the second round conversation. He could go anywhere from the top of the round on down. I don’t expect it will take long for a team to call his name on day two.

How Prospect Fits in Avalanche Organization

Clague would be a good fit for the Avalanche as the number of defensemen they have in the system masks the fact that only Will Butcher really brings a lot of offense to the table. Clague would jump in immediately and be a top five prospect in the Avs organization. His explosive offensive ability would be something to keep an eye on as he developed as a potential long-term Tyson Barrie replacement.