Boston Bruins
Hagens closed out his sophomore season at Boston School with 47 factors in 34 video games.
As “Soiled Water” blared over to the TD Backyard audio system, Boston School ahead James Hagens stared straight forward on the heap of UConn skaters celebrating alongside the boards.
With Hagens’s sophomore season at BC coming to a crushing finish, he embraced his brother, BC defenseman Michael Hagens, out on the ice earlier than solemnly making his method down the tunnel.
The subsequent time he takes to the ice, it is likely to be on this identical frozen sheet on Causeway Avenue. Besides subsequent time round, a spoked-B is likely to be etched on his sweater.
UConn’s 4-3 extra time triumph within the Hockey East semifinals didn’t simply punch the Huskies’ ticket to a convention title sport towards Merrimack on Saturday.
With BC’s season coming to an finish in late March, the ready sport now begins relating to Hagens and his path to the professional ranks.
Barring a seismic shift, the writing is on the wall that Hagens will flip professional within the coming days — signing his entry-level contract and giving the Bruins a much-needed carry for the crew’s ultimate stretch of regular-season motion.
Talking to reporters after the NHL’s commerce deadline handed on March 6, Bruins GM Don Sweeney acknowledged that Boston is leaving all choices on the desk relating to bringing in blue-chip prospects this spring.
“We’ll have these open discussions on the proper time with all our gamers which can be making that call,” Sweeney stated. “Together with our teaching workers to see the place a participant does match. They gained’t know them in addition to our scouts and improvement guys.
“They’re going to must belief just a little bit if that’s certainly the trail we go down. However we’ll simply have an trustworthy dialog with every one among them on the proper time.”
The Bruins’ quiet strategy on the deadline — past a minor deal that brought in Lukas Reichel — was rooted in a number of steadfast stances by Boston’s high brass.
Given the steep costs set in a vendor’s market, Sweeney and Co. weren’t prepared to relinquish priceless draft capital and prospects in quest of speedy reinforcements. Boston’s playoff positioning additionally took one other roster sell-off out of the equation.
Boston as a substitute opted to face pat, with the probably arrival of Hagens within the springtime standing because the Bruins’ de facto late-season addition.
Expectations will have to be stored in test for Hagens in his first foray towards professional competitors within the coming weeks.
The 19-year-old ahead’s pace, edge work, and stability capability make him a menace every time he has the puck on his stick.
Nonetheless, the trail that Hagens has been in a position to carve via the impartial zone at Conte Discussion board will likely be way more perilous at TD Backyard shifting ahead.
At 5-foot-11 and 193 kilos, Hagens’ capability to retrieve pucks from board battles will likely be an uphill battle at first.
However Hagens’ upside is clear, with the seventh decide within the 2025 NHL Draft nonetheless projecting as a future top-six stalwart in Boston’s lineup.
Even when that high-end manufacturing doesn’t reveal itself this spring, Hagens’ physique of labor this previous season at BC ought to have Bruins followers excited for what’s to return.
Hagens recorded two helpers in Friday’s loss (each on objectives from fellow Bruins prospect Dean Letourneau) — closing out his sophomore marketing campaign with 23 objectives and 47 complete factors over 34 video games.
Talking after the loss, BC head coach Greg Brown praised Hagens for the development he put forth after a promising freshman marketing campaign the place he posted 37 factors over 37 video games.
“He’s bought so many extra dimensions to his sport,” Brown stated of Hagens, who performed totally on the wing this season. “The defensive facet of the puck. The element. He might at all times carry a puck in. Unimaginable offensive concepts, imaginative and prescient. You see the concepts coming out of his head as he’s carrying the puck via the impartial zone. In order that half was at all times there.
“However he’s added to his offensive sport. However he’s actually added to his full sport. … He’s not only a expertise. He’s a pupil of the sport. So it’s nice to see his progress in so many areas.”
Even when the Bruins envision Hagens as a middle long-term, shifting him to wing this season ought to profit him as he makes the soar to the professional ranks.
Boston presumably has its heart pipeline set for a minimum of this season between Pavel Zacha, Fraser Minten, and Elias Lindholm. Boston additionally isn’t bumping out Sean Kuraly and throwing Hagens in at heart on a north-south fourth line.
A spot at left wing does open up potentialities for Marco Sturm and his teaching workers now that Hagens is likely to be within the equation.
Hagens’ playmaking and crisp transition sport would turn out to be useful on a 3rd line at the moment anchored by Lindholm and Morgan Geekie.
That duo might additionally use a fleet-footed playmaker to their left to assist snap their prolonged scoring droop (one 5-on-5 level of their final 12 video games).
If Reichel — who posted two factors in his Bruins debut Thursday whereas skating on that line — continues to impress, Boston might additionally swap out Marat Khusnutdinov and slot in Hagens on a high line with Minten and David Pastrnak.
Wherever Hagens does land on Boston’s lineup, the Bruins will welcome no matter potential logjam presents itself.
In any case, it’s not typically a possible franchise expertise is knocking on the door for a crew within the midst of a playoff race.
“He’ll decide when he’s prepared to return in and affect and the place he’s going to affect,” Sweeney stated of Hagens. “Having the ability to play the 2 positions, to nonetheless be offensively producing the possibilities he’s from the wing. He nonetheless assaults from the center of the ice, doesn’t change his power-play strategy, and his entries and the place he performs within the energy play.
“So it’s simply being a greater all-around participant and understanding that. … They decide once they’re able to play within the Nationwide Hockey League, and the chance will likely be there for them.”
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