He is heads-and-away above the rest regarding his playmaking abilities. He drives play with plenty of pass attempts, having dozens upon dozens of puck touches in any given game, he is seemingly always open, and always can wiggle his way around from pressure to give him time and space to make a play. He’s been shown to be one of the top players in the database to this point at elevating his teammates, seen through his shot assist metric, along with dangerous shot assists. He has nearly perfected the art of executing both the simple play to keep play alive, spread around the love, along with execute those dazzling, high-end pass attempts that lead to highlight reel goals. It is incredibly rare you see Hagens make an egregious error with the puck, always calm, cool, and controlled. In transition his evasive nature and strong base of skating abilities makes him tough to slow down and contain, he’s had no issues adjusting to the pace at the NCAA level, and frankly, has been one of the top players in the games tracked at carrying the puck and elevating the pace of play by challenging the middle, even commanding it at times with bold inside moves in stride. Defensively he’s played a great 200-foot game, in his own end he mans his assignments well, shadows puck carriers with great detail and is always aware of potential backdoor or centering efforts. His intelligence and timely nature rubs off in both the offensive zone and defensive zone, along with when working his way through the neutral zone as he processes his options.
