Prospect of Interest: Why James Hagens enters draft ready to silence doubters

At the NHL Scouting Combine in early June, there was a sense James Hagens believed he wasn’t getting enough credit for the year he put together with the Boston College Eagles. Hagens entered the season as the projected first-overall pick on many draft lists before slipping down most rankings in the back half of the year. Unsurprisingly, the talented Long Island kid thought he might be getting short shrift, as the hockey world began to talk more about the likes of Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa and Caleb Desnoyers. 

Here's what Sportsnet’s in-house scout, Jason Bukala, said after spending several days at the combine:

Hagens is highly motivated heading into the draft. He was pretty open about the fact he feels like he deserved more respect for what he accomplished this season and that people are underestimating how good he is. 

As it happens, part of what makes the modest-sized Hagens special is the fact he’s played with a chip on his shoulder long before any perceived slights.  

“He did have an edge to him,” Steve Rizer, who coached Hagens in youth hockey, told Sportsnet as part of a feature on Hagens in the fall. “He always — not led my team in penalty minutes — but he was always one of the top three guys in penalty minutes. We always laughed about it like, ‘James, you’re 20 pounds soaking wet! What are you doing? Get out of the scrums!’”

That spirit was in Hagens from Day 1, when he would battle his older brother — Boston College teammate Michael Hagens — for every inch of space available on the backyard rink built by their dad. 

Before landing at BC, Hagens — a 2006-born “late birthday” in this draft — broke Nikita Kucherov’s scoring record at the 2024 U-18 World Championship by netting 22 points for Team USA in seven games. 

Cue the hype train.

Six months ago, at the 2025 World Junior Championship, Hagens played between his BC teammates Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault to form the Americans’ top line. He netted five goals and helped Team USA win its second straight WJC title. 

In the NCAA, Hagens posted a respectable point-per-game season (11-26-37 in 37) as a freshman, often facing opponents who were three or four years his senior. But because he started the year as the No. 1 guy for the draft and didn’t light the league on fire the way 2024’s top pick Macklin Celebrini did with 64 points in 38 contests as an NCAA rookie with Boston University, some observers were compelled to wonder about his true high-end potential. 

The reality is, Hagens remains an enticing prospect who was jumped by some really good players who seemed to make bigger development leaps. Where he winds up going among a centre group of Misa, Desnoyers, Anton Frondell, Jake O’Brien and even Brady Martin will be a huge story early on in Los Angeles. 

Here's the quick-and-dirty on the guy following the footprints of fellow Long Islanders like Charlie McAvoy and Matt Coronato.

Team: Boston College Eagles (Hockey East)
Position: Centre
Shoots: Left
Hometown: Hauppauge, N.Y.
Age: 18
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 177 pounds

WHAT THE COACHES ARE SAYING

Hagens uses elite vision and creativity to make himself a top-tier playmaker. Speaking to Sportsnet in the fall, Nick Fohr — who coached Hagens for two years with the U.S. National Team Development Program — cited two other players he’s seen with the U.S. NTDP that serve as a good template for Hagens. One is 2019 top pick Jack Hughes and the other is Logan Cooley, the third-overall selection in 2022. 

“He skates like Jack, has the ability to get on his edges and do things like him,” Fohr said. “But he has a little bit of what Logan Cooley has that makes him so good — just a little bit of awkward, just a little bit of different. That’s something that I’ve learned from my years here: players that look a little bit different, and if they can do that at a high level, it’s really valuable for them. Things start to look similar and you’re used to [defending] certain things. When, all of a sudden, somebody looks different — the way they move or whatever it is about them — it makes it really hard to play against guys like that.”

Jay Pandolfo, coach of Hagens’ rivals at Boston University, had nothing but praise for the Eagles pivot. “He's a terrific player,” Pandolfo told NHL.com. “He can really control the pace of the game, is really smart, and makes plays. I certainly don't like coaching against him because every time he has a puck on his stick, he's looking to make a play. He can facilitate, can shoot it…he does a bit of everything.”

'BRING HAGENS HOME'

If, one year ago, somebody told you the New York Islanders would hold the top pick in the 2025 draft, it would have seemed like the hockey gods got together and decided Isles fans deserved a local boy who could lift the franchise out of its long-running offensive malaise. But that was when we all thought Hagens was the frontrunner to go No. 1, not somewhere in the next five or six picks after that top selection.

Still, there’s been a campaign on Long Island to land the Hauppauge boy, with “Bring Hagens Home” signs and bumper stickers showing up in the community. Hagens has talked about seeing the signs and openly acknowledged playing for the Isles would be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

The big question is, if the Islanders do what’s expected and take defenceman Matthew Schaefer first overall, does the Hagens movement expire right then and there?

Well…

Every year, there’s some chatter about top picks being in play, and every year, it never amounts to anything but juicy nuggets in post-draft notebooks about moves that almost happened. That said, many of the same people who report the swaps that never came to fruition each June are assuring us right now that, if ever there was a draft when we could see a very high pick move, this is it.

Utah’s selection is known to be in play at No. 4 and Nashville is a bit of an organizational wild card at fifth overall. The Mammoth, for sure, appear ready to talk turkey and with Isles defenceman Noah Dobson — who’s in need of a new contract this summer — suddenly back on trade boards across the Internet, maybe there is conversation to be had there and some kind of path to the Isles landing both Schaefer and the hometown hero. 

LIGHTING A FIRE?

If Hagens does fall — say, for instance, to seventh overall and the Bruins team that plays a little trolley ride down the Green Line from him at BC — will that motivate an already-spunky kid to fight even harder to prove his doubters wrong?

“I love playing hard, I love getting into the battles,” he told Sportsnet. “I don’t really like sitting on the outside, I guess, being pretty. There are times for that, but just getting into the game, being sure you’re not being a passenger [is important]. Sometimes I get [too] wrapped up in scrums, but that’s just part of the game.” 

Wherever he lands, that attitude — to say nothing of his skill — will make Hagens welcome in his new home.