Bruins coach talks lineup decisions as Hagens watch continues

The ready sport continues for Bruins blue-chip prospect James Hagens and his arrival to the professional ranks.

Hagens’ sophomore season at Boston College ended on Friday during the Hockey East semifinalsopening the door for the seventh decide within the 2025 NHL Draft to signal a professional cope with the Bruins.

So far, the 19-year-old ahead has but to place pen to paper on a contract with the Bruins.

While Hagens may conceivably return to the Eagles for a junior marketing campaign at Chestnut Hill, the playmaking ahead has little left to supply on the collegiate sport.

He took one other step ahead in 2025-26, recording 47 factors (23 targets, 24 assists) over 34 video games whereas serving to BC win its first Beanpot title since 2016.

Hagens — a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award — is probably going finest served making the soar to the professional sport this spring.

But the place precisely he begins his profession may be inflicting the delay in his potential arrival to the Bruins’ group.

Hagens may simply signal his entry-level cope with Boston and report on to the Bruins, probably giving Boston’s ahead corps a spark with 12 video games left within the regular-season slate.

Keeping him up within the NHL ranks for the remainder of the common season (and into the postseason) opens the door for Boston burning the primary yr of his entry-level deal proper out of the gate.

That may get Hagens a yr nearer to a pay increase when his ELC expires, however it may be the price of doing enterprise if the gifted skater hits the ice operating on the NHL stage this spring. ​

Of course, the Bruins may want placing Hagens on an analogous path as the one which Charlie McAvoy went on when he made the soar from Boston University to the professional ranks in 2017.

McAvoy initially signed an beginner tryout (ATO) contract with the Providence Bruins after closing out his sophomore season with the Terriers in March 2017, with the gifted blueliner getting some expertise towards AHL competitors after two years in Hockey East.

It wasn’t till accidents decimated Boston’s D corps going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs that the Bruins signed McAvoy to his ELC and elevated him as much as the NHL for a first-round bout with the Senators. The relaxation is historical past.

The Bruins may need to see how Hagens fares in Providence first earlier than throwing him right into a high-stakes playoff race over the following few weeks.

Of course, Hagens and his representatives might not be too eager on a pitstop in Providence — probably resulting in a stalemate that might drag out these contract talks.

As the Bruins and Hagens proceed to chart the perfect path shifting ahead, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm acknowledged on Monday that he does not have any qualms about placing youthful gamers within the lineup — so lengthy as they’re as much as the duty.

“It’s at all times a problem for everybody. It relies upon a little bit bit too what sort of age you are in. So the great factor is with me, over the previous — particularly in [the Kings’ AHL affiliate] Ontario — I at all times had faculty youngsters coming in,” Sturm stated. “They’re college kids and they never played against men.

“So it’s always a challenge. But, I didn’t see a problem because I feel like in the league in general, it’s part of the game now. … There’s so many guys now. It’s almost like it’s part of the game now, having — this time of the year — college kids coming in.”

Conor Ryan is a workers author protecting the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a task he has held since 2023.