Montreal Canadiens Michael McNiven Named OHL Player of the Week
The Montreal Canadiens goaltending prospect Michael McNiven has been named the Ontario Hockey League’s Player of the Week.
The Montreal Canadiens have an interesting prospect in Michael McNiven. The Owen Sound Attack’s goaltender was just named the Ontario Hockey League’s Player of the Week for his recent superb play.
McNiven’s name made headlines this weekend when Don Cherry claimed he was as good as Carey Price. That remains to be seen, but McNiven was pretty much unbeatable in three starts last week for the Attack.
The 19 year old goaltender started the week off with back to back shutouts. He stopped all 23 shots he faced against the North Bay Battalion and followed that up by turning aside all 28 shots he faced against the Kitchener Rangers.
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In his final game of the week, McNiven allowed just one goal. He led the Attack to another victory by stopping 22 of 23 Barrie Colts shots. The end result was a 3-0-0 record, a 0.33 goals-against average and a .986 save percentage for the week.
McNiven among OHL’s best all season, snubbed for World Juniors
The Georgetown, Ontario native improves his record to 18-7-1 on the season. His 2.16 GAA leads the OHL and his .922 SV% is also first. It is quite an impressive season for a player who went undrafted.
The Canadiens were wise enough to sign McNiven to an entry-level contract last summer. He had decent numbers in his first two seasons with the Attack, but has taken the OHL by storm this season.
McNiven was invited to the Team Canada final selection camp for the World Junior Hockey Championships this week. Only three goaltenders were brought to the final evaluation camp, but unfortunately McNiven was the odd man out when the roster was announced.
Canada is yet to find a goaltender that is going to take the reins at the tournament. Both Carter Hart and Connor Ingram have taken turns starting, but neither inspired much confidence thus far. However, McNiven is doing his best to show Canada’s management that perhaps he should be the one between the pipes.
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With Carey Price, Al Montoya, Charlie Lindgren, Zach Fucale and McNiven, it will be interesting to see where all of these goaltenders play next season when McNiven turns pro. However, we can rest assured they have exceptional depth in goal.