Sitting at No. 7 overall on the draft order, the Bruins should be positioned to add a talented center prospect on Friday evening.
But the consensus top prospect entering the 2024-25 season in Hagens? No shot … right?
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It hasn’t taken long for that sentiment to change.
Once deemed the crown jewel of the 2025 Draft class, Hagens has now been leapfrogged by other blue-chip talents such as defenseman Matthew Schaefer and forward Michael Misa.
But Hagens’s drop on the draft board might go beyond just the top two perches.
In his last 2025 mock draft, TSN insider Bob McKenzie — using insight from 10 different NHL scouts — tabbed Hagens as the No. 7 prospect in this class.
McKenzie’s TSN colleague Craig Button has Hagens listed as the No. 8 prospect, while The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler has Boston selecting the BC star with the No. 7 pick in his final mock draft.
“Everyone I’ve talked to in the last week or so seems to think [Jake] O’Brien/[Brady] Martin/Hagens don’t get past the Flyers and Bruins at 6-7, and yet one of the top eight guys has to go outside the top seven,” Wheeler wrote. “I’ve also heard the Bruins have looked into moving up.
“I do think it’s interesting that the Flyers and Bruins seem to like the same three guys and pick back-to-back, though, and Hagens just makes so much sense for the Bruins as that high-end piece to build around if he’s there.”
Hagens is seemingly everything an NHL team would covet in a top-six, play-driving center in today’s NHL.
The 18-year-old pivot is dangerous in transition as one of the top skaters in this draft class. Even though he doesn’t have the same heft as 6-foot-5 Roger McQueen or the pugnacious approach as Martin, Hagens’s hockey IQ, hands, and puck skills make him a lethal playmaker in tight spaces.
Even if earlier comparisons to Jack Hughes might have to be tempered, the Long Island native is cut from the same cloth as slighter, uber-skilled forwards such as Clayton Keller or Logan Cooley.
In other words … a player that a talent-deficient Bruins roster would love to add to their pipeline if fortune falls their way.
“He was a key component of the US National Team Development Program and a driver there, and was able to step into Boston College and play on their top line with some really good players,” Bruins director of amateur scouting Ryan Nadeau said of Hagens during the NHL Scouting Combine. “Watching him and the way he skates and the way he can attack open ice, and the way he can create space, and he’s got such good skill and vision, and he’s such a good driver. It was impressive to watch him this year.
“His game has really come along. He’s gotten stronger, and it helped to be in college and take on that challenge. Even after school to now, he’s worked really hard to put on some extra muscle. And getting to know James and spending a little bit of time with him, he comes from a really great family.
“He gets to play with his brother at Boston College. Both his parents are eighth-grade teachers. He’s just a really, really impressive kid. He’s got a young sister who’s a pretty good hockey player, too, and just a good family dynamic. And just spending a little bit of time with him, it’s been good to see him off the ice and get to know him.”
If Hagens is available at No. 7, the Bruins would welcome the opportunity to add such a high-end center prospect to their system — with the absence of a blue-chip talent down the middle standing as the top impediment toward Boston reasserting itself as a contender in due time.
Injuries and off-the-ice concerns have held no weight over why Hagens has slipped in recent draft projections.
Rather, the knock against Hagens lies more in his 5-11 frame and the production he showcased as a freshman at BC.
At first glance, Hagens was a key cog on a strong Eagles squad — closing out his first year against Hockey East competition with 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 37 games.
Perhaps Hagens’s inability to replicate the video-game-like stat lines of freshman phenoms Jack Eichel (71 points in 40 games), Adam Fantilli (65 points in 36 games), and Macklin Celebrini (64 points in 38 games) has skewered some of the sentiment about just how elite of a prospect Hagens might be.
But comparing Hagens to other ‘25 draft picks such as Misa (134 points in 63 games) should ring hollow, given the sizable step-up in competition that Hagens was routinely battling against this past year against players three to five years older than him.
The concerns over whether or not Hagens’s size could have him developing into more of a skilled 2C than a franchise centerman are more valid — although his ceiling would seemingly be higher than other potential options at No. 7 like Martin or McQueen.
Even if one might have a gripe with Hagens only submitting a point-per-game season as a college freshman at BC, his body of work for years now map out someone who should be an electrifying offensive player at the next level.
During the 2023-24 season, Hagens racked up 102 points (39 goals, 63 assists) in 58 games with the U.S. U18 National Development Program — a higher scoring total than submitted by Ryan Leonard (94), Phil Kessel (98 points), and Matthew Tkachuk (95 points) during their U18 campaigns.
The only players in that program to equal or surpass that in a single season? Patrick Kane, Cole Eiserman, Clayton Keller, Jack Hughes, Auston Matthews, Will Smith, and Gabe Perreault.
Hagens also set a scoring record at the 2024 World U18 Championships with 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in just seven games, breaking the mark set by Nikita Kucherov.
He may be a bit undersized, but he has a yearslong track record of decimating opposing defenses.
Had the Bruins moved up in the draft lottery and picked first or second overall, the case can be made that Hagens would fall behind the likes of Schaefer and Misa.
But at No. 7 overall? If a player with his potential is sliding that far, the Bruins shouldn’t think twice about adding such a talent to their organization.
“I love winning. I will do anything to win,” Hagens said. “Something that’s helped me get to the point where I am today is just how hard I’ve been able to work my whole life. Nothing’s ever come easy. I’ve had to work for everything that I’ve ever gotten before, and that’s something I’m super grateful for.
“That’s something that’s just within my family, something that I was raised up, taught from my parents and my coaches. So, going into those meetings just really expressing how hard I compete, and how badly I want to be on a team and hopefully win a Stanley Cup one day.”
Conor Ryan can be reached at conor.ryan@globe.com.
