As waiting game continues with James Hagens, Bruins coach has no issue adding prospects to lineup

The waiting game continues for Bruins blue-chip prospect James Hagens and his arrival to the pro ranks.  

Hagens’ sophomore season at Boston College ended on Friday during the Hockey East semifinals, opening the door for the seventh pick in the 2025 NHL Draft to sign a pro deal with the Bruins.

So far, the 19-year-old forward has yet to put pen to paper on a contract with the Bruins.

​While Hagens could conceivably return to the Eagles for a junior campaign at Chestnut Hill, the playmaking forward has little left to prove at the collegiate game.

He took another step forward in 2025-26, recording 47 points (23 goals, 24 assists) over 34 games while helping BC win its first Beanpot title since 2016.

Hagens — a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award — is likely best served making the jump to the pro game this spring.

But where exactly he starts his career might be causing the delay in his potential arrival to the Bruins’ organization.

Hagens could just sign his entry-level deal with Boston and report directly to the Bruins, potentially giving Boston’s forward corps a spark with 12 games left in the regular-season slate.

Keeping him up in the NHL ranks for the rest of the regular season (and into the postseason) opens the door for Boston burning the first year of his entry-level deal right out of the gate.

That might get Hagens a year closer to a pay raise when his ELC expires, but it might be the cost of doing business if the talented skater hits the ice running at the NHL level this spring. ​

Of course, the Bruins might prefer putting Hagens on a similar path as the one that Charlie McAvoy went on when he made the jump from Boston University to the pro ranks in 2017.​

McAvoy initially signed an amateur tryout (ATO) contract with the Providence Bruins after closing out his sophomore season with the Terriers in March 2017, with the gifted blueliner getting some experience against AHL competition  after two years in Hockey East.

It wasn’t until injuries decimated Boston’s D corps going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs that the Bruins signed McAvoy to his ELC and elevated him up to the NHL for a first-round bout with the Senators. The rest is history.

The Bruins might want to see how Hagens fares in Providence first before throwing him into a high-stakes playoff race over the next few weeks.

Of course, Hagens and his representatives may not be too keen on a pitstop in Providence — potentially leading to a stalemate that could drag out these contract talks.

As the Bruins and Hagens continue to chart the best path moving forward, Bruins head coach  Marco Sturm acknowledged on Monday that he doesn’t have any qualms about putting younger players in the lineup — so long as they’re up to the task.

“It’s always a challenge for everyone. Depends a little bit too what kind of age you’re in. So the good thing is with me, over the past — especially in [the Kings’ AHL affiliate] Ontario — I always had college kids coming in,” Sturm said. “They’re college kids and they never played against men.

“So it’s always a challenge. But, I didn’t see a problem because I feel like in the league in general, it’s part of the game now. … There’s so many guys now. It’s almost like it’s part of the game now, having — this time of the year — college kids coming in.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.