flammable forward<\/a> already has attributes that will make him stand out in the NHL the minute he pulls on the Black and Gold. He accelerates like nobody\u2019s business. He transports pucks with ease. He creates offense when the play appears to be stuck in quicksand.<\/p>\nAll of this will make Hagens most welcome when he decides it is his turn to become a professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cJames is always able to create offense,\u201d BC coach Greg Brown said. \u201cYou get drafted that high for a reason \u2014 the offensive side of the puck, which is the hardest thing to do. But what we\u2019ve really been impressed with is how he\u2019s rounded out his game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hagens is the highest Bruins pick since 2010. That year, they selected Tyler Seguin second.<\/p>\n
In July 2010, the month after the Bruins made the selection, Seguin reported to development camp at Ristuccia Arena, the team\u2019s former practice facility. The parking lot at the Wilmington rink was overflowing. Fans eager to see the future swarmed to see the explosiveness, speed and shot that Seguin, 18 at the time, already claimed as part of his resume.<\/p>\n
Hagens shares all of those qualities.<\/p>\n
His shot may not be as heavy as Seguin\u2019s at this point. Perhaps Seguin was sturdier in close-quarters ice.<\/p>\n
But Hagens\u2019 strengths are ones that every NHL club pursues but doesn\u2019t always secure. He makes plays under pressure. He transitions instantly from defense to offense. Even when he\u2019s defending, Hagens goes after pucks so quickly that he scares opponents just with the threat of going on the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to put him out now when we\u2019re protecting a lead against the other team\u2019s top players because he\u2019s really added so many dimensions of detail,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not only that he\u2019s creating chances and getting his points. We know he can do that. He\u2019s really much more well-rounded now. Credit to him for working hard on that stuff. Because that\u2019s not the enjoyable part of the game. He\u2019s been huge and will be huge going forward for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the first period, Hagens had a helper on fellow Bruins prospect Andre Gasseau\u2019s tying goal. It was a big one. Before that, BU had been pushing. Gasseau\u2019s net-front strike gave the Eagles life.<\/p>\n
In the second, Hagens recorded his second assist, again on the power play. He started with the puck low in the offensive zone. When he considered his options, Hagens saw Lukas Gustafsson open up top. The defenseman\u2019s wrister got through Mikhail Yegorov to give BC a 3-1 lead. It would be the game-winning goal.<\/p>\n
Hagens could have had more. Earlier in the second, he slipped a two-on-one pass to Brady Berard. Yegorov robbed Bedard\u2019s backhand bid with a glove save. On another second-period shift, Hagens made a clever stick check on Sascha Boumedienne at the defensive blue line and opened himself up for an odd-man rush. Hagens raced toward the offensive zone, got inside the right faceoff dot and let a snap shot fly that Yegorov turned aside.<\/p>\n
Hagens did all this while playing out of position. The natural center has been playing left wing this season. Part of it is to take some defensive responsibilities off his to-do list and let him focus on offense. But it\u2019s also been Brown\u2019s strategy to balance his lineup.<\/p>\n
Hagens is just fine with playing left wing. He has his team above individual accomplishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust exciting to be able to get this trophy, not only for us, but for our school and all the fans that showed up today,\u201d Hagens said. \u201cIt means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 The future is about to arrive for James Hagens. On Monday, the Boston Bruins prospect skated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1785,385,99],"class_list":["post-460552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-boston-bruins","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}