{"id":525577,"date":"2026-03-27T11:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/525577\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T11:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:33:13","slug":"bruins-james-hagens-return-to-college-vs-nhl-plans-shared-by-elliotte-friedman-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/525577\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins’ James Hagens return to college vs. NHL plans shared by Elliotte Friedman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruins’ James Hagens return to college vs. NHL plans shared by Elliotte Friedman<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James Hagens is playing in the AHL for the Providence Bruins, but there’s some wondering as to whether he could return to the NCAA level next season and continue playing college hockey for Boston College.<\/p>\n

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Would the Boston Bruins<\/a>, or Hagens, want that? And would it be allowed? Those all may be moot points.<\/p>\n

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported<\/a> in his latest 32 Thoughts column that it may not be something Hagens goes for, regardless of whether he can or not.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ll see how things progress with James Hagens, but I don\u2019t believe returning to Boston College is a realistic outcome,” Friedman writes. “What\u2019s interesting is that several advisors and executives wanted him to try if he doesn’t sign this spring with the Bruins, just to see how the NCAA handles it. While there is educated guesswork Hagens wouldn\u2019t be eligible now that he\u2019s appeared in the AHL, the fact a couple of players have returned to college after playing professional hockey has others wondering if he could be stopped. In this case, however, the question appears moot.”<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0Alex Ovechkin snaps an unfathomable streak<\/a><\/p>\n

There are always going to be competing motivations in a situation like this, from contract future to player and team preference.<\/p>\n

Each organization will handle things differently in a situation like this one, too.<\/p>\n

“Someone asked me if the Bruins don\u2019t want to burn the first year of his contract so a new one is needed in three years instead of two,” Friedman writes. “Only Boston can answer that, but one thing I\u2019ve learned is some clubs aren\u2019t scared of this because it can actually hurt a player\u2019s comparables due to lower counting stats. I mean, if Hagens does what he can do, it\u2019s not going to matter. But some agents and teams will tell you burning a year with no huge numbers can help a club\u2019s negotiation\/arbitration case.”<\/p>\n

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At the end of the day, Hagens is an extremely talented forward. The Bruins just want to figure out the best path to him reaching his potential while wearing their uniform.<\/p>\n

More NHL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruins’ James Hagens return to college vs. NHL plans shared by Elliotte Friedman originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[426,154,95,34,2300,5,373,4,1753],"class_list":["post-525577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alex-ovechkin","tag-boston","tag-boston-bruins","tag-boston-college","tag-elliotte-friedman","tag-hockey","tag-james-hagens","tag-nhl","tag-providence-bruins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116300926405939457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525577","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=525577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}