James Hagens hasn’t spent long in a Bruins sweater, but the buzz around him is already loud - and now it comes with a strong stamp from one of the NHL prospect world’s most respected voices.
The Boston Bruins’ No. 7 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft landed at No. 13 on The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler’s top-100 prospect list. Wheeler’s ranking is for players under 23 who are “not fully established” in the NHL, and Hagens checked in as the fourth-best center on the board.
That’s a strong spot for a player who was once in the mix to go first overall in his draft class and who came out of Boston College with plenty of hype. Hagens joined the Bruins by the end of the 2025-26 season and, even in that brief look, appeared comfortable with the speed of the NHL game.
Wheeler’s evaluation was glowing, and it leaned hard into what makes Hagens such an appealing prospect: pace, touch and vision. He wrote, “His game is about skating and playmaking.
He’s breezy as a skater, making his patterns look easy out there. He’s agile and his stride and edges are dynamic, light, mobile and adjustable, with good speed and quick acceleration through his crossovers and cuts.
He has high-end touch and handling and real finesse as a passer or in playing pucks into space for himself. He’s very aware of spacing and timing on the ice and does a good job hitting his spots off the puck to present an option in motion to teammates, as well as finding teammates when they’re open with his vision through layers.
He has an impressive small-area game and an even more impressive game in open ice, with an ability to take his first touch and put opposing defenders on their heels when he gets the puck. He makes a lot happen in transition with his ability to flow up ice and make plays at pace, because the puck just sticks to his stick, and he moves with control of rare quality.
He has phenomenal dexterity and reflexes, catching passes into his first touch. He’s crafty and has a game that mixes delays with one-on-one skill that pulls defenders in and then beats them.
He has drive and wants to take charge on the ice.”
Wheeler finished with a simple line: “I remain a big believer.”
The Bruins are clearly in that camp, too. As Hagens settles in, the expectation is that he’ll get plenty of chances to become a major difference maker.
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