Leafs prospect scores nasty Michigan goal in OHL

Very few things in the sport of hockey are as cool and instantly get the attention of every fan as much as a Michigan goal. A Toronto Maple Leafs prospect was able to score one of those beautiful and tantalizing tallies in OHL action last weekend.

Sam McCue, the Leafs' seventh-round draft pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, has been an OHL journeyman during his junior career so far and in the final year before having to leave one of the greatest junior hockey leagues in the world pulled off a super slick move.

During last Friday's game against the Peterborough Petes, the Ottawa 67s winger managed to get possession behind the net. Without a single second of hesitation or pause, McCue saw his opportunity to lift the puck onto his blade and drive it up and over the opposing netminder's shoulder from behind the goal.

Leafs prospect Sam McCue scores nasty Michigan goal

That is just gorgeous. It wasn't a Michigan goal where you could feel it coming from a mile away. We've seen that before with some of the trick-shot goals scored in the NHL by wingers like Andrei Svechnikov -- it felt more like a forced move rather than something that just came naturally to the moment. For McCue, while it is still in the OHL and we're not comparing the defensive coverage that he faced to anything in the NHL, it felt slicker than most of these Michigan goals we see elsewhere, for sure.

For McCue, this might be something to remember his final season in the OHL by. The 20-year-old winger is taking his talents to the NCAA's Bowling Green State University next season as he ages out of the junior league, but what a career he has had so far.

Originally drafted by the Peterborough Petes in 2021, McCue played 67 games split between two seasons before being traded to the Owen Sound Attack in the middle of the 2023-24 season. And then after fulfilling his dream of being an NHL draft pick, he was then dealt again in the middle of the 2024-25 season from the Attack to the Flint Firebirds.

And then after finishing up his season in Flint, he was involved in an offseason move that took him to the powerhouse Brantford Bulldogs for this season. He played 25 games in Brantford and scored 17 points but then was moved again to the 67s in a trade in December. McCue's only season where he managed to play for one OHL team was during his rookie year. He's now played for five different organizations over four seasons.

But that's just the talent that he is. He's not going to be ripping up the score sheet, but he has been consistently a point-per-game player as a supplementary piece and obviously teams value that.

Now, he caps off what could be his final months in the OHL after a lengthy run with a beautiful goal.