Bruins
“College — it’s a different level of hockey. It’s harder. It’s not junior hockey. It’s tough to score every given night.”
James Hagens has heard all the noise at this point.
Once crowned as the top player in the 2025 NHL Draft class, the dynamic Boston College forward has seen his stock slip over the last few months.
While Hagens’ consolidated draft ranking on Elite Prospects still has him tabbed as the No. 3 prospect in this group behind defenseman Matthew Schaefer and center Michael Misa, there is some variance as to where the 18-year-old forward could land in the draft order in late June.
TSN’s Craig Button even went so far as to put Hagens as the No. 8 prospect in the upcoming draft, with forwards with lower ceilings like Brady Martin (No. 6) or injury concerns in Roger McQueen (No. 5) slotted ahead of him.
Such a dip would be a steep drop for Hagens — who entering the 2024-25 collegiate season as the next potential Jack Hughes.
But Hagens’ murky stock could also offer the slim hope that a Bruins team starved for elite offensive talent could potentially have the Long Island native in their crosshairs next month with the No. 7 pick.
“I love Boston,” Hagens said on Tuesday. “Being at Boston College, we’re right in the middle of Boston there. So it’s a beautiful city. Only great things to say about it. I love it there.”
For all of the discourse surrounding Hagens and the tape he submitted as a freshman at Boston College, the young forward was candid about the performance he put forward in the collegiate ranks this winter.
“I thought I had a great season. You’re playing against guys that are 25, 24 years old every night. It’s tough,” Hagens said. “It’s hard hockey, but I’m super grateful to be able to have the year that I was able to have with the group of guys that we did have.”
Hagens closed out his first season in college hockey with 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 37 games.
That stat line pales in comparison to the production orchestrated by other potential top-10 selections like Misa (62 goals, 134 points in 65 games in the OHL) or Jake O’Brien (32 goals, 98 points in 66 games in the OHL).
But the quality of competition in college hockey — especially in Hockey East — is far more daunting than what phenoms like Misa and Co. feasted on in the Canadian Junior ranks.
Still, scouts were likely expecting a No. 1 pick like Hagens to mimic the standout collegiate seasons orchestrated by other generational freshmen talents like Jack Eichel (71 points in 40 games), Adam Fantilli (65 points in 36 games), and Macklin Celebrini (64 points in 38 games) over the last decade.
But even if a point-per-game pace might be deemed as underwhelming for a player of Hagens’ caliber, he has few regrets over his play at Chestnut Hill.
“I love making plays,” Hagens said of his approach on the ice. “I love being able to find a guy back door, that’s something that I feel like is a big part of my game, my whole entire career. So I wouldn’t say that I ever deflect away from shooting the puck. I know when to shoot and when to pass.
“Just something that really helps take my game [to] the next level is the way I’m able to kind of find other guys. … College — it’s a different level of hockey. It’s harder. It’s not junior hockey. It’s tough to score every given night. It’s low-scoring games. You have to work to score goals.”
Beyond his play at the college level, Hagens’ track record speaks for itself.
Hagens closed out his tenure with the U.S. National Team Development Program with 102 points in 58 games in 2023-24.
That same season, Hagens set a new scoring record at the 2024 World U18 Championships with 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in just seven games, breaking the previous record set by Nikita Kucherov.
In an NHL that now relies heavily on skating and skill, Hagens brings it every single time he hops over the boards — with the forward citing Patrick Kane, John Tavares, and Logan Cooley among those he models his game after.
But talent evaluators still have some qualms about whether or not Hagens’ size or play style can translate to the NHL, at least as it pertains to him being a legitimate franchise talent.
“At BC, he had stretches this season where he was hard to notice at even strength and had too many games where he was invisible,” The Athletic’s Corey Pronman wrote this week of Hagens. “He struggled to consistently get to the inside against bigger college defenders. He also struggled to score goals this season.
“At barely 5-foot-11 and without a physical edge, his profile becomes harder to project as a top-line NHL center who you can win with. His compete level is decent and looked good at the World Juniors, but I wouldn’t call it a standout trait.”
As tantalizing as Hagens’ skillset is, there is a reason why physical forwards like Martin are starting to see their stock soar at this point on the NHL calendar as GMs and other evaluators start projecting how these 2025 forwards could fit into their lineup.
With the NHL scouting combine set to commence in less than a week, Hagens is looking to dispel some of the narratives surrounding his game once he’s able to meet face-to-face with teams in Buffalo.
“I’m just trying to explain just how high my compete level is at the combine,” Hagens said. “I’m getting ready to show that with all the tests. I love winning. I will do anything to win. Something that’s helped me get to the point where I am today is just how hard I’ve been able to work my whole life.
“Nothing’s ever come easy. I’ve had to work for everything that I’ve ever gotten before, and that’s something I’m super grateful for. That’s something that’s just within my family, something that I was raised up, taught from my parents and my coaches. So, going into those meetings just really expressing how hard I compete, and how badly I want to be on a team and hopefully win a Stanley Cup one day.”
Hagens would not be the first blue-chip prospect to sink down the draft leaderboard. It would be a welcome sight for a team like the Bruins — who would seemingly tune out any of those shortcomings in his game if Hagens realizes his potential as a legitimate top-line pivot in the coming years.
Even if Hagens isn’t exactly a carbon copy of Jack Hughes, an offensively-deficient team like Boston would welcome a scenario where Hagens develops into another Clayton Keller (90 points in 81 games with Utah this past season).
Hagens sporting the spoked-B still stands as wishful thinking.
Even if he slips past teams like Chicago (No. 3 overall) or Utah (No. 4), teams starved for young talent down the middle like Nashville (No. 5) or Philadelphia (No. 6) would likely do somersaults in their draft war room if Hagens dropped down the order.
But regardless of where he lands on June 27, Hagens is embracing the twists and turns that await in the lead-up to the draft.
“Getting drafted has been my dream my whole entire life,” Hagens said. “That’s why I started playing hockey. That’s why I still play. But I’m really just grateful for everything right now. The noise will always be there, but you just have to make sure you’re living in the moment and taking it day by day.”
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