F James Hagens - Boston College, NCAA (2025 Draft)

[Kennerback]

Yes I guess the better word would be underhyped. You are right in that it was largely due to the overwhelming Bedard hype a year earlier.

Celebrini has a pattern. First, he skates the puck from blue line to blue line himself, enters the zone and immediately passes (and never misses) his winger. He then tricks the coverage getting himself open. He’ll shoot on reception. His shot is deadly. NHL Defences have not adapted.

For Bedard they have adapted on some of his patterns. On zone entry, instead of Celebrini’s give-and-go Bedard took the high slot and shot. NHL Ds now stuff him high and unlike Juniors it’s much harder to go around the Ds.

To do the same to Celebrini, they need to either trap him between the two blue lines, or not fall for his tricks shaking coverage on the reception of the give and go. Will Celebrini continue fooling defenses? Will Bedard adjust to the Ds adjustements like Gretzky and other generational players? I think time will tell if the level of Bedard hype was justified.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Flash-forward to the NHL, Fantilli is struggling to hit .5PPG for a pretty decent CBJ team this year (all I heard last year were complaints about the team). Eichel has had a career that I think maybe isn’t impossible for Fantilli to replicate, but it’ll be hard and I personally have never seen that level of upside in his game. The PPG differences didn’t matter that much to me. It was clear to me using my eyes that Fantilli was not Eichel level, if you used the context of their scoring.

Fantilli has great physical tools but needs to improve on the mental side of things. I'm not saying he won't get there, but it's probably the biggest barrier that is currently preventing him from making an impact right now.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

The WJC means very little. He is playing with guys he has played with all year. The others aren't.

Are you kidding? So because a player plays well with some linemates he’s played with for 10-15 games in the past it means that the performance is invalid? And you realize they haven’t played together all year for BC. It’s been most, but not all. Probably like 65% of the time. You should only speak on topics you know about.

What about the players on like literally every team at the WJC that have experience playing with linemates in the past? You can probably find someone on every single team that has more than 10-15 games prior playing with a linemate or two.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Oh brother, not this again.

James Hagens and Macklin Celebrini were born in the same year. Macklin Celebrini is a little over four months older than James Hagens. Internationally, they are the same age. Draft year is not relevant when it comes to international, NTDP, and NCAA play. Birth year is.

At the 2023 U18, Macklin Celebrini put up 15 points in 7 games. At the same tournament, James Hagens put up 5 points in 7 games.

At the 2024 WJC, 17 year old Macklin Celebrini put up 8 points in 5 games. James Hagens didn't play.

In 2023-2024, Macklin Celebrini scored 64 points in 38 NCAA games (1.68 PPG) as a 17 year old. James Hagens scored 102 points in 58 NTDP games (1.76 PPG) as a 17 year old. Hagens destroyed the U18, but Celebrini had graduated out already even though he was eligible to play.

In 2024-2025, 18-year-old Macklin Celebrini has 29 points in 33 NHL games. 18 year old James Hagens has 20 points in 18 NCAA games and had 9 points in 7 WJC games.

Macklin Celebrini has been better than James Hagens every step of the way. If James Hagens were born two months earlier or Macklin Celebrini three months later, there would be no debate that Celebrini would go 1st overall amongst reasonable people.

I'm sure there will be some draft year truthers who disagree, but frankly, I'm tired of arguing with them. I'm more than happy to let their NHL careers play out and do the arguing for me.

From my experience I've found it's almost impossible to explain this to some people.

Even if they start to catch on they eventually revert back to thinking differences in number of days alive is far more important to development than number of hockey seasons played prior to being drafted, which is asinine.

 

[montreal]

I respect your opinion. I was just saying I disagreed. Didn't want to start a fight, but I was responding to @Frank Drebin's post, and he asked about the differences, so I was merely saying I see it differently from you in that respect.

I agree with you about Hage. I said in May before he was drafted that I can see how it happens. I don't want to take too much credit for that idea. I heard it elsewhere, and it made sense to me. I initially on my own just thought of him as a guy who'll be an offensive center, but after some reflection on the idea I've come around to the idea that a scoring winger may just be a cleaner fit for him.

For Hagens, I think for a sub 6'0 center (and he was 5'11 in the preseason measurements at age 17, so for all we know he's now not sub 6'0 anymore) he's pretty good defensively. He's better defensively at the same age than players like Hughes or Bedard, who lets face it are sticking at center in the NHL, whether good defensively or not. Hagens has also been pretty solid on face-offs in the NCAA, considering he's 47% as one of the youngest players in the NCAA (usually some of the youngest players in a league who are bad on draws are in the 30's). And he was a PK'er last year at the NTDP and led the Gold Medal Winning American WJC team this year in TOI/G for a forward, so he wasn't exactly getting sheltered.

Here's each game I have of him at BC and his FO's, in order from last game to start of season, which works out to 63/147 if my math checks out,

0/6 FO's,


7/15


8/16


7/9


7/12


3/9


3/16


6/12


2/8


1/9


5/13


8/12


6/10

 

[WarriorofTime]

From my experience I've found it's almost impossible to explain this to some people.

Even if they start to catch on they eventually revert back to thinking differences in number of days alive is far more important to development than number of hockey seasons played prior to being drafted, which is asinine.

It's been explained to you time and time again, but you insist on the silly opinion that some prospects need to be judged based on their prior season because of their number of world junior eligible years remaining. You'd get laughed out of a scouting room with that take.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Here's each game I have of him at BC and his FO's, in order from last game to start of season, which works out to 63/147 if my math checks out,

0/6 FO's,


7/15


8/16


7/9


7/12


3/9


3/16


6/12


2/8


1/9


5/13


8/12


6/10

This is from the BC website: James Hagens - Men's Hockey - Boston College Athletics

 

[coooldude]

Celebrini has a pattern. First, he skates the puck from blue line to blue line himself, enters the zone and immediately passes (and never misses) his winger. He then tricks the coverage getting himself open. He’ll shoot on reception. His shot is deadly. NHL Defences have not adapted.

For Bedard they have adapted on some of his patterns. On zone entry, instead of Celebrini’s give-and-go Bedard took the high slot and shot. NHL Ds now stuff him high and unlike Juniors it’s much harder to go around the Ds.

To do the same to Celebrini, they need to either trap him between the two blue lines, or not fall for his tricks shaking coverage on the reception of the give and go. Will Celebrini continue fooling defenses? Will Bedard adjust to the Ds adjustements like Gretzky and other generational players? I think time will tell if the level of Bedard hype was justified.

It's a good analysis, but I'll say this -- he's dropping off to the winger on the give-and-go because they've adapted already. Earlier in the season he was taking D on to the outside with speed, and still occasionally when they give him the space, he'll take them on straight up like McJesus. However, he's not quite as fast or skilled, so it's not always effective.

If there's any clear skill he has on zone entry, it's taking what the D gives him and that's why he's top 6 (or whatever) in controlled zone entries /60 in the league. And when they try to over-focus on him, we have about 2 other players who can make entries with speed/space (Eklund, Granlund) so he can act as a diversion and then drive the net, which he has done also. He's definitely adaptable, fun to watch.

The next thing to address is his tendency as an 18yo eager beaver to blindly force cross-ice passes after that entry, leading to team-worst passing% but team-highest danger-creation on successful passes. A little more care and he'll level up.

I can't speak to your thoughts on Bedard other than to say it seems correct that he has to adapt to hit his ceiling, but his last 10 or so games it sounds like he has made a step back.

Back to Hagens -- he seems to have a strength in hockey IQ, great edge work, and good speed. Don't have enough shifts watched to say if he has an adaptable game, but it sounds from what I read and what little I have watched that he should be able to adjust to the NHL game, assuming he's physically ready for it.

 

[JotAlan]

May be the case- but man imagine Celebrini and Hagens down the middle. Smith out on the wing.

As someone who absolutely loves Schaefer I don’t think I pass on the chance at having that level of a 2 headed monster down the middle.

I've been hitting this button for months and using exactly the same words as you lol. I really like Schaeffer, but you can't miss the chance to have a two-headed monster in the center. Celebrini-Hagens would potentially be the best center duo in the league for 10 years.

 

[montreal]

Hagens Assist 0:59
Hagens Chance 5:30
Hagens Robbed (Great Save) 6:58
Hagens Great Move 8:40

 

[montreal]

Wonder why they were using Hagens on the wing so much tonight, he is 2 for his last 14 in the dot in his last 2 games combined.

 

[Hammer Slammer]

Wonder why they were using Hagens on the wing so much tonight, he is 2 for his last 14 in the dot in his last 2 games combined.

Same with the 11th, he was on the wing most of the time with Leonard taking faceoffs but then seemed to take over the center duties during the shift

 

[montreal]

Same with the 11th, he was on the wing most of the time with Leonard taking faceoffs but then seemed to take over the center duties during the shift

tonight they had him start the game on the wing but by late 1st he started taking some draws. For someone that can play 20 mins a night on the top line, it's interesting that he's only taken 6 and 8 faceoffs the last 2 games. I know they have been mixing up the lines at times but just thought it curious.

The other odd thing is how is BC's PP so shitty with likely the best line in the NCAA running it.

 

[Juxtaposer]

The other odd thing is how is BC's PP so shitty with likely the best line in the NCAA running it.

Coach refuses to make adjustments and Eamon Powell isn't even close to an acceptable PPQB. Only reason they scored at a reasonable level last season is because they had four of the best players in the nation on PP1.