{"id":159272,"date":"2025-08-14T20:29:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/159272\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T20:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:29:14","slug":"bruins-draft-pick-explains-returning-to-bc-for-sophomore-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/159272\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins draft pick explains returning to BC for sophomore season"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Hagens<\/a> is in no rush to turn pro after being selected in the first round of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft<\/a> by the Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The forward will return to Boston College<\/a> in the fall for his sophomore season, he confirmed to WEEI\u2019s Scott McLaughlin<\/a> on Wednesday at TD Garden.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not a sprint, it\u2019s a marathon,\u201d Hagens said<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to rush anything. … There\u2019s a different timeline for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagens<\/a> said the decision came after he talked a lot with his family and the Bruins.<\/p>\n

During a recent conversation with the Boston Herald\u2019s Steve Conroy<\/a>, Hagens revealed the decision was up to him, but was told if he decided to turn pro, that didn\u2019t guarantee a roster spot.<\/p>\n

\u201c(They said), \u2018if you come here, you have to make the team.\u2019 That\u2019s how it is. Nothing\u2019s given to you. Everything\u2019s earned,\u201d Hagens told Conroy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Hagens was drafted, there were questions about whether he\u2019d try to fight for a spot on Boston\u2019s roster or continue his collegiate career. And while the 18-year-old admitted he wanted to play in the NHL as soon as possible<\/a>, he knew it wasn\u2019t a guarantee he\u2019d wear a Bruins sweater to begin the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

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Bruins general manager Don Sweeney liked the Hagens\u2019 enthusiasm, but noted there was no reason to rush Hagens\u2019 development<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no hurry to try and fast-track James. I\u2019d say about every player. If somewhere between now and then that changes and we feel differently about it, as we\u2019re evaluating, we may make that decision,\u201d Sweeney said in June<\/a>. \u201cI know he\u2019d like to play right away. I\u2019m sure every guy that was drafted tonight thinks they might be able to play in the National Hockey League, but we\u2019ll allow that to take a more natural course and make the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagens helped the Eagles to the Hockey East regular season title with 11 goals and 26 assists last season. Despite being a point-per-game player, continuing to develop his offensive game will only benefit him for his NHL future.<\/p>\n

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Read the original article on MassLive<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Hagens is in no rush to turn pro after being selected in the first round of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,34,5132,530,5,373,4,27631,4165,9796],"class_list":{"0":"post-159272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-boston-college","11":"tag-bostonbruins","12":"tag-bruins","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-james-hagens","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-scott-mclaughlin","17":"tag-sophomore-season","18":"tag-steve-conroy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115029014173758440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}