Media Day 2025 | Brandon Hagel

Media Day 2025 | Brandon Hagel

As you kind of look, we expect the roster to look pretty similar as it did at the at the end of the last season. When there’s little change compared to big changes, and you guys had big changes last year with who left and who came in, this year it’s more subtle. Like what’s the difference in terms of understanding the familiarity with guys compared to maybe new guys coming in have to get familiar with? Yeah, I think uh that screams a lot of confidence in uh the organization, the group we have in this dress room. And um as a player, that’s what you want to hear, too. I mean, um we had a pretty good season last year. Obviously, it ended not even close to where we wanted to be, but um we had a really good hockey team and um having the chance to bring that hockey team and give us one more crack at it is um like I said, it screams confidence and um builds confidence in the dress room that how much belief we have in this group and and the guys behind us. And then obviously with the additions we made um some would say well they were small but um um they’re uh they’re really big additions for us in in so many different ways and adding more depth to our team and and in in all four lines and um that uh that um from a player standpoint you can’t ask for much more. The last time you were up there pretty emotional man back and forth with you and us. Do you use what happened at the end of last season for you and the team as motivation for this year? Is it something where you kind of just put it behind you and you start a new? Yeah, I mean I not necessarily um for exactly what happened to me, but uh obviously um they went and went on and win to win and um obviously that’s a team we’re going to have to get through to to get to the top eventually. So um obviously I think there’s a little bit of that dress room. there’s uh we’ve been out in the first round a little too many times and um I think coming back this year there’s there’s got to be a bigger um um standard. Um we set a big standard here. Coupe does a good job at that every single season anyways, but um it eventually it comes down to the players and that’s us. And um this year we definitely have to um have that standard hired because like I said uh few too many first rounds. How long did it take you after you kind of got away to get over the concussion stuff uh from that series? How long did it take you to get back on the ice? Um it was uh I mean it it was lucky enough that uh uh it was kind of the the summer I guess you should should say. So um you take a little bit off anyways. Um and uh I think uh didn’t mess up my summer anyways. Vernon coach said you kind of came and hung out with him this summer. Did some work on the ice with him. When you see what he does, and I know you’ve been around it for a couple years now, but you see the way that he works and what he does and how quickly he gets back into it after his season is over. What does that do for you when you’re around him and see that? Yeah, I think the thing about Cooch is he does things a lot different. Uh I think growing up as a kid and um obviously coming to skate with him last year before the start of the season um you never I’m out there doing things I never even knew existed and been playing hockey for that many years. So um Gucc is incredible at what he does and um if I get the opportunity to come back a little bit earlier and um do what he does because I definitely can’t run my own skate at home that’s for sure. But um he’s uh yeah he’s a special player. It shows why he continues to do what he does every single year. Um he’s going to go down as one of the best hockey players in the entire world. And um if you want to be the best, you better learn from the best. And that’s what I’m going to try and do. When you look back on working with him last year, do you think that that helped you this year this past year? Because obviously you set new standards in terms of all all of your numbers, you know? Yeah, I think so. I think um you definitely give credit to that. Um you go back and look at my season, obviously it was a really good one. Um but at the same time I um I thought I came back I worked with the guy that was number one in points for many times and um listen I’m just trying to learn from him and and uh it’s pretty special to be able to get the opportunity to learn from a guy like that and watch what he does every single night. I mean I get a front row seat and it’s pretty special. Some people might think it looks easy but he’s just it’s not. He just makes it look easy. Is is the offensive part of your game the biggest change since you first came into the league as as a rookie? Are there or are there other areas that you think you’ve improved on particularly besides maybe the offense? Um it’s it’s weird because I come into every season I remember when I had a really good first season. I never expected myself to be a 20 30 goal guy on a regular basis and I still come into every single season. Um just wanted to help this team win. Um and obviously that I have to um produce a little bit for that for that to happen and I I continue to try to but um listen I I I think you said it best. I think obviously my offense kind of kind of took off more than I probably expected. Um, but I come into every single season, I think my number one mentality is to work hard and usually that’s that’s what brings my success and um, if I’m able to go out there and give 100% every shift, then I’m probably going to be successful. To go back to Cooch, but he talked at the end of of last season about you guys being able to execute under pressure like in the playoffs against the Panthers. I’m just curious for you, is there anything that you did differently maybe that you learned? Obviously, it was a short series for you, but anything you learned from that series maybe that you did differently this off season? I don’t I don’t know if there is one thing specific, but uh yeah, I honestly like looking back at the series, you kind of sit back and um wonder what went wrong. I think we all know what went wrong. We had an opportunity to bring it back home, but um I didn’t think we were I I think we were right there. And um that’s what makes this year so much more exciting. I mean the the games maybe not show that but um I think there’s a lot of belief in this room and um I think coach hit it on the head. I think um under pressure being able to succeed is is a number one thing you need to be good at especially in the playoffs. You mentioned you have to go through Florida. Obviously they’re the standard with what they’ve done but you look at the division as a whole. Five teams out of this division made the playoffs last year. some of those younger teams, Montreal, Ottawa, are getting better. What’s the challenge in just getting out of getting into the playoffs with this division? Um, yeah, like there’s a lot of good hockey teams um especially in our division, they continue to get better every single year and um we come in and we got to do our job. I think our first goal is to make the playoffs and that’s the standard right from the beginning. Um the Tampa Bay Lightning are a team that um needs to be in the playoffs and that’s there’s no other um if ends or buts about it and we know teams are going to continue to get better but um we just go out there focus on ourselves um try to get better as a as a team day by day and um hopefully when we’re looking at the standings we’re right there. So um I think Coupe does an incredible job at it. I think a lot of the players in this dress room do an incredible job at holding that standard and um continuing to want to get better every single day and um we just focus on ourselves and um hopefully putting us in a good spot. You’ve been on a lot of penalty kill. You’ve been on a lot of power play over the course of your career. How much has penalty killing helped what you see and do on the power play? Yeah, it does help actually. Um, lucky enough that I get to to play with someone that uh kind of thinks the same way as me with with Tony. Um, the penalty kill, we obviously had a ton of opportunity to get to get some chances throughout the year, but at at the same time um you can kind of bring that to the power play as well and um read off some reads because um you’ve been doing it for so long, you know what to expect. You know what probably a good play is and a bad play is. But uh um there’s it’s it’s definitely bene benefited me in my uh my career. And I mean I didn’t have any power play goals but but uh yeah it’s it’s always a positive especially just bringing it to um to the locker room as well during meetings.

Brandon Hagel takes the podium during our 2025 Media Day.