LAS VEGAS — Almost all his life, Max Plante was a short king.
When he tried out for the U.S. National Team Development Program, Plante was barely 5-foot-6 and 127 pounds. Even before then, he was always among the smallest players in his age group. It’s a big reason why Plante loves Brad Marchand, the undersized agitator who has been one of the NHL’s stars for most of his career. Marchand finds a way to overcome his height, and Plante had to do much the same thing.
Consider his height a blessing. When the Red Wings picked Plante 47th overall in Saturday’s 2024 NHL Draft, the pick came because of the skills and competitiveness that being undersized developed. “Growing up” is a key phrase there, because Plante isn’t a small player anymore. True to his name, he grew like a plant, measuring in at 5-foot-11 and 177 pounds now with room to keep growing over time.
“Coming into the Program, I was a short, skinny guy and I went to work the last two years," Plante said at the NHL Draft. "And I mean, I’ve still got a lot of room to grow in my game and score more goals and get stronger. But over the 17 summer, I thought I got faster and played with more pace.”
So now that he has enough size to not be a hindrance to his NHL aspirations, Plante can enjoy all the advantages that growing up small gave him. Primarily, small size strengthened his ability to feed teammates excellent passes. He played last season on the third line of the NTDP’s U18 team behind James Hagens and Kamil Bednarik, but Plante still put up 61 points — 46 of which were assists — in 51 games.
It’s no stretch of the imagination to think that this passing ability might have something to do with his former size. When a player doesn’t have the size to get the puck to high-danger areas themselves, they have to lean on teammates who can. A lack of size prevents players from, well, relying too much on size. In this case, Plante is a great passer because he had to be.
But Plante isn’t just a passer. Like nearly all forwards that Steve Yzerman picks, Max brings a solid two-way foundation to his game. And while he needs to develop more skills when he uses his newfound size to get into scoring areas himself, there’s a lot to like in his game.
There’s also a lot to like in Plante’s family history. He’s the son of former NHL center Derek Plante, who won the 1999 Stanley Cup with Dallas. Max credits a lot of his hockey background to his family, whether that be his dad “probably (watching) more hockey than anyone in the world” or his grandpa who coached his Hermantown (Minn.) high school hockey team.
“Just being around hockey people all the time, that’s where my passion for the game comes from.”
His hockey family showed out in Vegas, cheering loudly when Detroit picked him. They also had a big hand in his development as a player, particularly from playing against his brothers. Growing up, Max used to spend hours on his family’s outdoor rink, where the whole family took to the ice and played against each other including his dad.
“My dad was probably better than us because he was so much bigger when we were younger, but we put up a good fight,” Max said.
Notice that Max didn’t mention his dad’s NHL career, nor the skill associated with it. Without reading too much into fine details, that difference in his hockey philosophy is encouraging for his growth overall. It shows that he isn’t someone who backs down from a challenge. And now that he’s equipped with the size to make use of the tools he’s developed, Max is an intriguing prospect for the Red Wings’ pipeline.
Recalling his draft process, not much stuck out to Max about his interviews with Detroit. All he really remembered was that the Red Wings asked him to name a five-pick range when he would be picked, and he said 42 to 47.
Whether or not he knew Detroit picked 47th, it was with that second round pick that the Red Wings made him one of their prospects. He brings gifted passing and a family legacy in hockey to the Red Wings’ prospect pool.
Max will likely spend next season in the USHL, sharing that he plans to play for Minnesota-Duluth — the same school as his dad and older brother — in two years. Playing in college hockey, particularly in the NCHC, should help him figure out how to score in congested areas and make use of his size.
But it’s because of the lack of that size before that Max has developed some of the traits that make him a special player.
