Clague is a calm-and-cool, puck-rushing defenseman. He is a dynamic skater who can absolutely fly and weave around the ice. He is a constant threat to rush the puck up ice and single-handedly create a scoring chance, but picks his spots as to maintain his obligations defensively. He sacrifices a little defensively for the amount of offense he is involved in. He sees the ice at an elite level and just seems to know what options will be available well before the play occurs. His offensive game can be electric. Clague has great hands and tremendous puckhandling skills. He has a very good shot and uses a compact, but charging, slap shot to quickly get pucks on the net. He is very good at timing one-timers and hesitates very little when getting wrist shots on target. The only downside to his puck skill is that he waits so long to make a play and draw a defender in that he leaves himself vulnerable to be physically harmed or the victim of an unrecoverable mistake. He is a very stick-oriented defender who is great at using his skating ability to keep his gaps tight and stay in position. He uses his great awareness and skilled hands to break up plays and transition the puck out of the zone and on the offensive. He is excellent at staving off pressure and finding more than the traditional route out of the zone. He is not nearly physical enough and needs to improve his overall consistency.  (May 2016)