30 goals in a season
Steelheads defender nets 30th goal of OHL season
Kitchener native Nic Hague seeing red
Nic Hague was always more of an assist guy.
“I was never a big goal scorer as a kid,” said the Mississauga Steelheads defenceman.
But the Kitchener native is changing that reputation quickly this season with the Fish.
Hague became the first Ontario Hockey League rearguard to score 30 goals in a season in 18 years when his tap-in beat Oshawa goalie Kyle Keyser in Wednesday night’s 5-4 loss to the Generals at the Tribute Communities Centre.
“I had no idea of that stat until people started Tweeting about it after the game,” said the 19-yearold. “It has been going well for me and it’s definitely something that I’m proud of.”
It has been an interesting path to the plateau for Hague.
The Vegas Golden Knights second-round draft pick has passed several players with ties to his hometown along the way.
Former Kitchener Rangers blueliner Ryan Murphy had 26 seven years back, while current Blueshirts assistant coach Dennis Wideman, who has trained with Hague in the off-season, hit 27 in junior with the London Knights in 2002.
Allan Rourke — another Rangers back-ender — was the last rearguard to pass the 30-goal threshold with 31 in the 1999-2000 campaign. Hague has eight games left in the regular season to tie — or pass — the one-time Toronto Maple Leafs prospect.
Beating former Niagara Falls Thunder d-man Bryan Fogarty, who holds the OHL record with 47 tallies, seems unlikely.
But there is an outside shot at second overall. That group, who all buried 38 goals, includes Bobby Orr (Oshawa), Chris Allen (Kingston), John Slaney (Cornwall) and Al MacInnis (Kitchener).
Just being mentioned in the same breath as those players is an honour.
“That’s cool,” he said. “They were all good defencemen in the OHL and some went on to have great NHL careers. They are guys I admire.”
You could call Hague a lamplighting late bloomer.
After all, he only had three goals for the Kitchener Jr. Rangers in his minor midget year. And he raised his arms in celebration just three more times with the Jr. B Kitchener Dutchmen the following season.
Things changed in the second half of his first OHL season three years ago. Hague didn’t notch his first goal until Dec. 19 but added 13 more by the time the schedule was done. That increased to 18 last season, before ballooning to 30 this time around.
“I can’t put my finger on anything in particular,” he said. “I just kept shooting the puck. I think that’s a big part of my game — getting pucks on net.”
Hague, whose 66 points are an all-time high among Steelheads defencemen, is smarter now, too.
As a third-year player, he knows when to jump into the play and when to back off. He makes the most of open ice and also has a strong supporting cast. The first person he credited for his milestone marker was teammate Trent Fox, who delivered a deadly pass on a backdoor break.
The attention is humbling but Hague has bigger fish to fry.
The defending Eastern Conference champion Trout are in eighth place and looking to get back to the OHL final after losing to Erie last season. “I know when we get into the playoffs that the guys that are returning from last year’s group are not going to want to let anything slip away,” he said. “Last year was pretty heartbreaking for us.”