Boston Bruins
“[I] grew up working for this my entire life.”
Contemporary off his first skate as a member of the Bruins, James Hagens harassed repeatedly within the locker room that he isn’t trying too far forward.
The 19-year-old’s first order of enterprise as an NHLer?
“Be taught the place all of the doorways open to and be taught the place all the pieces goes,” Hagens stated Thursday of getting his bearings at Warrior Ice Area. “In order that’s first. It’s simply staying within the second.”
For the entire buzz surrounding the Bruins’ high prospect after putting pen to paper on his entry-level contract, Hagens and his new head coach did what they might to mood discuss of the expert ahead’s quick influence on a membership seemingly destined for the playoffs.
“That is his day immediately,” Marco Sturm stated of Hagens. “[Friday], we’ll discuss strains and issues like that.”
Hagens’s first official day as a Bruin was extra about getting the previous Boston School standout acclimated to his new teammates — a gaggle that might use his dynamic skating potential and inventive playmaking to spark an uneven offense with three video games to go.
Hagens’s new stall — together with his No. 44 nametag — is located within the nook of the locker room, subsequent to Mason Lohrei. Just a few lockers down are veteran defensemen Nikita Zadorov, Hampus Lindholm, and Charlie McAvoy.
Throughout the room from Hagens? Fraser Minten, the 21-year-old middle whose hovering profession trajectory ought to be one Hagens goals to imitate.
Subsequent to Minten is Tanner Jeannot, the pugnacious winger who could possibly be tasked with shepherding Hagens by way of his first few video games in opposition to NHL competitors.
“It’s pure pleasure. Strolling in right here immediately, with the ability to meet all people … These are guys which might be function fashions for you, individuals that you simply look as much as, and now you’re sitting in a stall subsequent to all of them,” Hagens stated. “So it’s fairly surreal. It’s actually cool, and it’s simply one thing you must soak in.”
The Bruins lit the lamp 5 occasions in opposition to the Hurricanes throughout Tuesday’s time beyond regulation defeat in Raleigh, N.C. Hagens’s arrival ought to give just a few crucial areas of Boston’s depth chart a spark.
A sputtering energy play — twenty seventh (16.4 %) since getting back from the Olympic break — ought to get extra seems to be if Hagens is the one tasked with ferrying the puck by way of the impartial zone and manufacturing clear zone entries.
Hagens’s passing potential and edge work make him a harmful facilitator when stapled to a line with shoot-first forwards.
After scoring 23 targets and 47 factors over 34 video games as a BC sophomore, Hagens might elevate the scoring capabilities of a Bruins third line that has usually discovered itself caught in impartial over the previous couple of months.
A spot subsequent to Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie would possibly maintain some enchantment, whereas Sturm may also choose to reshuffle his depth chart and slot Hagens subsequent to youthful skaters like Minten and an on-ice deterrent akin to Jeannot.
Sturm — who praised Hagens’s potential to regulate to the pains of professional hockey throughout his six-game stint with Windfall (one aim, three assists) — was noncommittal when requested concerning the younger ahead’s anticipated NHL debut.
The following recreation is a house matinee on Saturday in opposition to the Lightning — a club the Bruins could meet in the first round of the playoffs.
“My job is to do the correct factor for this group, but additionally I wish to defend this child,” Sturm stated. “It’s not honest generally, both to throw gamers in conditions the place they’ll’t deal with it or perhaps they’re not prepared. When is the correct time? Subsequent recreation? Following recreation? No matter it’s, I’ll do this. However I would like a number of the correct packing containers earlier than I do this.”
“It’s the place we’re at proper now. If I really feel like this child will help us, he’ll play,” Sturm added of Hagens, who is predicted to play on the wing this season.
Sturm’s warning is to be anticipated for a coach nicely conscious of the rising pains that await Hagens as he braces for high-stakes hockey on the sport’s highest stage.
It’s a problem that Hagens welcomes.
“[I] grew up working for this my entire life,” Hagens stated when requested if he’s prepared for the NHL. “[I] simply need it actually unhealthy.”
Join the At present publication
Get all the pieces you could know to start out your day, delivered proper to your inbox each morning.
