{"id":35521,"date":"2025-07-31T18:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T18:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35521\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T18:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T18:20:10","slug":"bruins-prospect-james-hagens-confirms-hes-returning-to-boston-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35521\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins prospect James Hagens confirms he’s returning to Boston College"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite impressing during Boston\u2019s Development Camp earlier this month,<\/a> Bruins prospect James Hagens seemingly signaled this week that he intends on returning to Boston College for his sophomore season this fall. <\/p>\n

In an interview with NHL.com\u2019s Mike G. Morreale<\/a>, Hagens didn\u2019t mince words when asked about his goals for this upcoming season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be able to win a Beanpot, be able to win a national championship,\u201d Hagens, who is currently playing for Team USA at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Minnesota, told Morreale. \u201cEveryone has their roles, but our team goal is winning. That\u2019s what we want to do. We fell short last year, but it\u2019s hopefully going to happen this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagens\u2019s career path after getting selected No. 7 overall in the 2025 NHL Draft<\/a> offered plenty of intrigue after his impressive showing at Warrior Ice Arena during camp.<\/p>\n

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Speaking to reporters earlier this month, the 18-year-old Hagens was candid about his hopes of playing NHL hockey this upcoming season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be a Boston Bruin,\u201d Hagens said. \u201cI want to be a Boston Bruin really bad. That\u2019s the conversation that I have to have with the staff and management. \u2026 But, just to be able to get the draft over and know what team that you\u2019re putting your heart and soul into, it\u2019s a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

There stands a chance that Hagens might still don a black-and-gold sweater in 2025-26. Granted, it will now come in March or April 2026, after the Eagles\u2019 season wraps up. <\/p>\n

As tempting as it might be to roll out Hagens on Oct. 8 to kick off a new season, the Bruins are opting for a more cautious approach by watching the center play out his sophomore season at Chestnut Hill.<\/p>\n

Rather than go through growing pains against bruising NHL competition during a potential bridge season in Boston, Hagens should have the opportunity to build off the promise he showcased last season (11 goals, 26 assists in 37 games) as the Eagles\u2019 go-to offensive threat.<\/p>\n

With former BC standouts Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault now in the pros<\/a>, Hagens will be tasked with being more assertive as the Eagles\u2019 top scoring conduit in 2025-26 \u2014 giving the New York native a prime opportunity to build up his confidence and stuff the stat sheet in Hockey East. <\/p>\n

If Hagens makes that progression as a dominant player in the college ranks this season, an entry-level deal with Boston may not be far behind once the Eagles\u2019 season comes to a close. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no hurry to try and fast-track James [but] I\u2019d say that about every player,\u201d Don Sweeney said in June of the timeline of Hagens\u2019 arrival to the pro game. \u201cIf somewhere between now and then that changes, and we feel differently about it as we\u2019re evaluating, we may make that decision. I know he\u2019d like to play right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure every guy that was drafted [in the first round] thinks they might be able to play in the National Hockey League, but we\u2019ll allow that to take a more natural course and make the right decision for James and the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conor Ryan can be reached at conor.ryan@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite impressing during Boston\u2019s Development Camp earlier this month, Bruins prospect James Hagens seemingly signaled this week that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,28972,575,85],"class_list":["post-35521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bruins","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}