Mathieukferland
Registered User
Season ended tonight, 11G 26A 37P in 37GP to end the year. For a variety of reasons, I think another year of going back to BC would be beneficial to him and his development
F James Hagens - Boston College, NCAA (2025 Draft) Part 2
- Thread starter hangman006
- Start date
I haven’t seen anything that screams he’s ready to play against men yet
TheGreenTBer
JAMES DOES IT NEED A WASHER YES OR NO
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He absolutely should stay. He's not ready.
Agreed. Another year at BC is the right choice and there's no question about it.
Hockeyville USA
Registered User
Moments of brilliance and then moments of being quite meh where you don't notice him a ton. That wasn't the case for 17 year old Celebrini nor 18 year old Fantilli in their brilliant 1 year NCAA careers.
Hagens going back to BC is best for all parties involved. He should go 3rd or 4th, I bet he ends up going 4th or 5th though.
Hagens going back to BC is best for all parties involved. He should go 3rd or 4th, I bet he ends up going 4th or 5th though.
Hockey Duckie
Registered User
The Cutter Gauthier's line played top line and the Will Smith line played on the 2nd line last year with BC, iirc. Hagens played top pairing center with Perreault and Leonard. Completely different situations and Perrault-Smith-Leonard have had chemistry history. It's not an apples to apples comparison.
BC Pairwise ranking
2023-24: 0.8333 (1st in NCAA) and Record = 31-5-1
2024-25: 0.7524 (1st in NCAA) and Record = 26-7-2
Last year's Final Four championship game (Source: College Hockey News)
This year's BC roster after losing to Denver in the NCAA Tourney. (Source: CHN)
As I said before he didn't look that great this season. On the other hand he maybe is similar to Jack Hughes, who didn't look like a future star in his first couple of NHL seasons.
I mean Hagens' D-1 season in the USHL was close to Hughes' D season. Kids sometimes are just not physically ready to play vs older and tougher players.
I mean Hagens' D-1 season in the USHL was close to Hughes' D season. Kids sometimes are just not physically ready to play vs older and tougher players.
AlternateSideParking
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- Dec 11, 2005
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Strong season against a tough schedule. Great intl tournament play. Still the best pure playmaker in the draft and one of the top skaters. Has a great attitude, is durable and mature, competes hard, and is a team-first type. No reason to think he doesn’t deserve to be the first forward off the board.
Misa and Martone had it way easier this season. 27 combined goals were scored in Saginaw’s first two playoff games. The four NCAA games over the weekend saw a combined 17. We still have no clue how the CHL kids will fare against top-tier goaltending.
I think he goes 4-6 range because the shitty teams drafting up top will go for need whether they publicly admit it or not. Pittsburgh, Boston, Philly, NYI, Seattle, and NYR are the ideal landing spots for Hagens. Schaefer’s a lock at No. 1. Misa likely goes 2-4 since he’s almost guaranteed to be made a wing by one of those bottom-feeders and he’s undoubtedly an elite finisher. Martone’s size will intoxicate scouts but he’s been the worst player on the ice far too often.
Misa and Martone had it way easier this season. 27 combined goals were scored in Saginaw’s first two playoff games. The four NCAA games over the weekend saw a combined 17. We still have no clue how the CHL kids will fare against top-tier goaltending.
I think he goes 4-6 range because the shitty teams drafting up top will go for need whether they publicly admit it or not. Pittsburgh, Boston, Philly, NYI, Seattle, and NYR are the ideal landing spots for Hagens. Schaefer’s a lock at No. 1. Misa likely goes 2-4 since he’s almost guaranteed to be made a wing by one of those bottom-feeders and he’s undoubtedly an elite finisher. Martone’s size will intoxicate scouts but he’s been the worst player on the ice far too often.
WarriorofTime
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- Jul 3, 2010
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People get really weird around this time on draft prospects...
How does a 3.5 month age gap between Hagens and Misa get rounded up to "almost a year"
I did Misa and Hagens birth date math in reverse for some reason, good catch.
Interesting, I'm not sure what view I take on it. I assume he plays more minutes than what the trio from last year were getting and his linemates are some of the best prospects out there, one year older. The chemistry history is certainly a factor but how does it all balance out is pretty hard to tell.
Agreed, and this isn't even really about Hagens but more a general thing. The hype from Bedard going 2.5 PPG in the WHL was absolutely absurd, but the hype from Celebrini going 1.68 PPG with a top NCAA schedule was frankly far below what it should have been.
Rabid Ranger
2 is better than one
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
Love the rebranded username so no one would call you out on your "Hagens is an equal prospect to Celebrini", "Hagens is a lock for #1 overall", and "Hagens is a lock to be a #1C, I don't even need to watch him anymore" hot takes from November.
Star Platinum
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Captain Mountain
Formerly Captain Wolverine
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Likely because Fantilli did it the year before in the Big-10 and did not have a standout rookie season in the NHL.
I think it may be that not enough attention was paid to Celebrini having less NCAA elite teammates compared to Fantilli (L. Hughes, McGroarty, Samoskevich, Casey, etc.). He and L. Hutson carried a very heavy load.
I think people were hoping for more from Hagens considering he had Leonard and Perrault as teammates.
WarriorofTime
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Celebrini never had a big hypebase because (a) he wasn't playing in the Canadian development system to get the Canadians paying attention to him on that exceptional status, big points in a CHL league path and (b) he wasn't an American so he wasn't part of the USNTDP or seen as some big next piece for the future of USA Hockey. Who was going to be his big support base? California AAA watchers and the USHL superfans? So he was just an in-between. Regardless of "hype" though, he was a consistent wire to wire first overall pick from whenever that class first started getting mock drafted and he held the spot his entire draft year.
AlternateSideParking
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Looks line the mods deleted my first response because it probably would have hurt your feelings, so I’ll just say that I already admitted Celebrini had the better draft year in retrospect. Doesn’t change my opinion that Hagens is a star 1C in the making and the best forward in this class.
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
Hey, you can take this to PMs if you want to get personal. And if you admit that you see the difference between Celebrini and Hagens now that most of us saw in November, good on you. It's just funny.
TheDoldrums
Registered User
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
His U18 and U20 stats map pretty well to previous late-birthday Americans like Matthews and Eichel. I don't think you can come after Hagens for his international statistics.
TheDoldrums
Registered User
No one called them generational international players
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
No, but they are the two greatest American prospects from the last fifteen years. "Generational" is a stupid way to phrase it but Hagens has performed very well on the international stage every opportunity he's had.
The problem with the comparison comes when you try and compare Hagens' performances as a December birthday to guys who played a year earlier as June or July birthdays. Ie trying to compare Hagens' U18 stats or U20 stats to Celebrini or Bedard but not considering that those two didn't play the U18 in their 17 year old seasons and played WJC as 17 year olds.
TheDoldrums
Registered User
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
Fair enough! Hagens does own the U18 scoring record, so I think you could make the argument for that specific tournament.
