{"id":68476,"date":"2025-08-08T21:08:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/68476\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T21:08:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:08:06","slug":"how-bruins-approached-james-hagens-on-professional-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/68476\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bruins Approached James Hagens On Professional Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The way teams develop prospects is crucial when it comes to how the player pans out in professional hockey. <\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/08\/nhl-expert-breaks-down-bruins-top-five-young-talents\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bruins\u2019 top prospect<\/a>, James Hagens, Boston wants to take its time with him.  <\/p>\n<p>The front office spoke to Hagens after the 2025 development camp and allowed for the decision to be up to the 18-year-old. They warned him that if he wanted to make the quick jump to professional hockey, he would have to fight for a spot on the NHL roster. <\/p>\n<p>After the conversation, Hagens decided it would be better <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/07\/bruins-top-prospect-james-hagens-hints-at-professional-plans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to go into his<\/a> sophomore season with Boston College. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a great talk, a great conversation. It was up to me. And (they said), \u2018if you come here, you have to make the team.\u2019 That\u2019s how it is. Nothing\u2019s given to you. Everything\u2019s earned,\u201d Hagens <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2025\/08\/08\/with-bruins-on-hold-for-now-james-hagens-focusing-on-boston-college\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told Boston Herald\u2019s Steve Conroy<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s just taking it day-by-day, knowing what point you\u2019re at. You never want to rush it, so it came down to sitting down and talking to my family, and talking to them and figuring out what the path was for me. But it\u2019s just pure excitement to be around this, to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>General manager Don Sweeney said after the Bruins drafted Hagens that there was no need to rush him in his development. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The extra year gives the 5-foot-11, 190-pound forward more time to add strength and improve his skill set even more. At the end of the Eagles\u2019 season this year and through the draft, he gained 10 pounds to help with puck battles. <\/p>\n<p>With the extra year, he can take even more advantage of that. <\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, I still want to be a Bruin really bad,\u201d Hagens said. \u201cBut it\u2019s just the time frame of it. I think there\u2019s no rush. Going back to school, it\u2019s a great opportunity, and I\u2019m really grateful that I have that option. It\u2019s just making sure that you\u2019re taking the opportunity in hand and you\u2019re able to do a lot with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way teams develop prospects is crucial when it comes to how the player pans out in professional&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[11262,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-68476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-james-hagens","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68476","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=68476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}