Boston Bruins
“The issues that you just’re seeing now, we noticed even final yr.”
The 2025-26 Bruins are already exceeding a number of expectations in Marco Sturm’s first season as head coach.
However as Boston retools its roster within the coming years, a once-stagnant prospect pipeline seems to be cultivating a brand new wave of prime expertise.
Look no additional than the crop of gamers taking to the ice at Chestnut Hill, with Bruins prospects James Hagens and Dean Letourneau each dominating in Boston School’s 5-3 win over Notre Dame on Friday afternoon.
Hagens — drafted seventh total by Boston within the 2025 NHL Draft — led the best way for the Eagles with a hat trick. Letourneau — a 2024 first-round decide (No. 25 total) — added a objective and an help within the win.
Hagens, who was initially projected by some to be the highest decide within the 2025 Draft, has been as marketed in his sophomore marketing campaign at BC.
On an Eagles workforce coping with a number of accidents and the lack of a number of NHL prospects like Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault, Hagens has posted 16 factors (9 objectives, seven assists) over 14 video games.
Hagens’ inventory dipped final yr after recording 37 factors in 37 video games as a real freshman at BC, with some wanting extra high-end stats out of such a blue-chip prospect.
Whereas Hagens continues to be on monitor for somewhat over a point-per-game scoring fee, the attention take a look at to date has been encouraging to date for a talented prospect whose skating, edge work, and playmaking have been evident on a shorthanded BC squad.
One of many knocks in opposition to Hagens has been his behavior of working extra alongside the perimeter as a real freshman. However the sophomore has been rather more assertive this season, knocking dwelling his first objective on Friday with a spinning backhander within the crease.
“It’s nice,” Hagens said of his recent play. “I don’t suppose it’s best to ever let any of the surface noise get you in any respect. However this yr, our workforce’s actually discovered it. We’re on somewhat stretch right here. We’re enjoying very well.”
Barring damage or a large dip in manufacturing, the expectation ought to be for Hagens to make the soar as much as the NHL ranks in March or April as soon as the Eagles’ season wraps.
The emergence of Letourneau this yr has been arguably essentially the most stunning (and welcome) improvement inside Boston’s farm system.
Deemed a mission as soon as Boston chosen him within the 2024 NHL Draft, the expectation was that the 6-foot-7 ahead was going to wish a while to marinate in faculty after making the soar proper from prep stage to Hockey East motion.
These rising pains had been evident as a freshman with BC, as Letourneau scored zero objectives and posted simply three assists over 36 video games in 2024-25. Even when the expectations had been that Letourneau was extra of a bottom-six common as a professional, the Bruins had been banking on extra baseline scoring output final fall from the gifted ahead.
However Letourneau — who stressed his desire to move on from last year’s setbacks — has put that freshman marketing campaign within the rearview mirror.
Following Friday’s win, Letourneau now has six objectives and 13 factors throughout 14 video games this season — tied for second on the Eagles to date this season.
Letourneau will want extra time to develop and spherical out his imposing body within the faculty ranks. However his willingness to make use of his physique to have interaction down low — coupled with a pointy shot — may make him a viable middle-six contributor within the coming years.
“The issues that you just’re seeing now, we noticed even final yr — it simply didn’t translate to the video games but as a result of he was younger,” BC head coach Greg Brown stated Friday. “He’s a lot stronger now. He’s rather more prepared for the tempo and for the physicality of faculty hockey.
“So now the good things is popping out. We may see that it was there, however now he’s prepared to make use of that. And, yeah, he’s been clearly an enormous a part of this season and certainly one of our prime guys.”
Hagens and Letourneau are removed from the one Bruins prospects who’ve impressed to date this season.
Ahead Will Zellers — acquired from Colorado as a part of the Charlie Coyle commerce final March — has scored seven objectives and 11 factors throughout 12 video games as a freshman at North Dakota this yr.
Zellers, the reigning USHL Participant of the 12 months after scoring 44 objectives in 52 video games final yr in Inexperienced Bay, is one other prospect with authentic middle-six upside in Boston’s pipeline.
Add in Boston’s bounty of future first-round picks — 4 in whole over the following two drafts — and the Bruins ought to have the means to additional inject extra NHL expertise into their system over the following few years.
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