BOSTON \u2014 The Boston Bruins figured that six games with Providence would give James Hagens enough of an AHL appetizer to be ready for an NHL entree. The 19-year-old met the challenge. He scored one goal and three assists during his AHL residency.<\/p>\n
The organization will soon see how the AHL prepared Hagens for the real deal.<\/p>\n
Coach Marco Sturm declined to answer whether Hagens, who signed his entry-level contract<\/a> on Wednesday, will make his NHL debut on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The odds are good, though, that Hagens will pull on his No. 44 jersey sometime in the remaining three games of the regular-season segment and make his case for playoff duty.<\/p>\n \u201cMy job is to do the right thing for this team, but also, I want to protect this kid,\u201d Sturm said on Thursday after Hagens\u2019 first practice at Warrior Ice Arena. \u201cIt\u2019s not fair sometimes, either to throw players in situations where they can\u2019t handle it or maybe they\u2019re not ready. When is the right time? Next game? Following game? Whatever it is, I will do that. But I need a lot of the right boxes before I do that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bruins took Wednesday off following Tuesday\u2019s 6-5 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. They had an optional practice on Thursday. They will have a full practice on Friday.<\/p>\n The rare three-day trough gave the Bruins an optimal window to ease Hagens in. That Alex Steeves, Lukas Reichel and Mikey Eyssimont have had little traction while taking turns at No. 3 left wing was not related to Hagens\u2019 promotion.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing,\u201d Sturm answered when asked if the third-line rotation impacted the organization\u2019s decision. \u201cThe road trip we had, nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing. We want to do the right thing for that kid and for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n Hagens learned of the promotion on Wednesday. He informed his parents, drove from Providence to Boston and signed his contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Thursday, he dressed in the stall next to Mason Lohrei that was formerly occupied by Johnny Beecher, the Bruins\u2019 2019 first-round pick. After going with No. 12 in Providence, Hagens strapped on a helmet with his new number: double the No. 4 he used to wear in youth hockey with the Long Island Royals.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a dream come true for me, something I grew up my whole life dreaming of,\u201d Hagens said. \u201cTo be here, part of an NHL organization, it\u2019s really special.\u201d<\/p>\n During his six-game AHL apprenticeship<\/a>, Providence coach Ryan Mougenel oversaw the development of a critical component: off-puck play. There is no doubt about Hagens\u2019 NHL speed, skill, vision and puck-transporting ability. He will only earn Sturm\u2019s trust to express his offensive game, however, once he signals defensive reliability. Hagens passed his first AHL test.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing able to do video with the coaches, that\u2019s helped me out a ton,\u201d Hagens said. \u201cJust to be able to really mature your game, learn what you have to do and learn how to play off the puck. To see it back on film, it\u2019s really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n Whenever Hagens gets in, he\u2019ll likely start on the No. 3 line with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov. Sturm has no reason<\/a> to split his first line of Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak. Geekie snapped a 17-game goal-scoring slump against Carolina with a hat trick<\/a>. Pastrnak assisted on two of Geekie\u2019s three goals.<\/p>\n Sturm is not messing with his second line of Casey Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson. The fourth line is set: Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly and Mark Kastelic.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Hagens will remain on the wing this season. It is the position he played in Providence and at Boston College, despite being a natural center. Long term, Sturm is eager to give Hagens a whirl in the middle.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re comfortable with our centermen,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cIt\u2019s not fair to put him in as a centerman because he didn\u2019t play there all year long. He\u2019s in a safe spot here as a wing. Moving forward, we\u2019ll see. I would love to see him as a centerman because he has that speed and ability to move pucks. But definitely not this year.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lightning, No. 2 in the Atlantic Division, have yet to clinch home ice in Round 1. They have points to play for. Ditto for the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Bruins\u2019 Sunday opponent. The Blue Jackets are two points behind the Ottawa Senators for the No. 2 wild card.<\/p>\n The Bruins are just about guaranteed a playoff spot, but this is not official yet. As such, these will be ferociously contested games. It won\u2019t be easy for Hagens to adjust to the intensity.<\/p>\n He cannot wait.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to compete,\u201d Hagens said. \u201cCompete my hardest. Hopefully, bring skill and some offense to the table. But also be responsible defensively and be able to be trusted. You don\u2019t want to be out there getting scored on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 The Boston Bruins figured that six games with Providence would give James Hagens enough of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[462],"tags":[95,5,4,465,466],"class_list":{"0":"post-549192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-draft","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-draft","12":"tag-nhl-entry-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116378099037752758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549192","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=549192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}