ASU Hockey: 2018 commit Gage Mackie to join team a year early in fall

Arizona State’s hockey program, who just signed one of the top recruiting classes in the nation for the 2017-18 season, had yet another big day Thursday.

Gage Mackie, a signee for the 2018-19 recruiting class, decided to begin his stint Tempe a year early.

A native of Anchorage, Ala., Mackie committed to play at ASU back in February of 2015, but wasn’t set to join the team until the 2018-19 season.

Early Thursday, Mackie signed to play at ASU this upcoming fall, officially making him the newest member of the 2017-18 Sun Devil recruiting class.

Mackie played his junior hockey for the Aberdeen Wings of the NAHL where he captained and finished sixth on the team in scoring with 35 points (14 G, 21 A) in 50 games this past season.

Mackie had one of the top shooting percentages on the team, netting an impressive 12.6 percent of his 111 shots which was good for third best on the team for players (min. 55 shots).

As the captain of Aberdeen, Mackie was second to none when it came to leadership skills as he was the recipient of the NAHL Leadership Award.

The NAHL official website lists Mackie at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds. He fits the profile of a power forward and could likely learn a lot from the likes of Tyler Busch (6-foot-3, 195 pounds) and Steenn Pasichnuk (6-foot-4, 219 pounds).

With the early addition of Mackie, the future keeps getting brighter for ASU hockey, who are heading into their third official season of being a Division I hockey program. The team will be pretty young once again this season, but with a few veteran leaders returning this is a team that could definitely make some noise come October.