TAMPA \u2014 Brandon Hagel has a pretty thick skin. He\u2019s got the kind of scar tissue that might have made some players quit long ago. But not this guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t get taken in the WHL draft, it\u2019s a kick in the head as a Canadian kid, you always want that opportunity,\u201d the Tampa Bay Lightning star said Monday. \u201cI\u2019ve been kicked in the head a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
No, really.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go to Buffalo (which drafted him), they don\u2019t even sign you, they don\u2019t give you an opportunity,\u201d Hagel said, rhyming off his career hurdles like he\u2019s reading his bio on the back of a hockey card. \u201cWhen you spend a summer there like they asked, you do everything it takes, and you still get kicked in the head.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, you get an opportunity and somebody that believes in you \u2014 and Chicago was the first team to believe in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even the Blackhawks then traded him, as we\u2019ll get to in a moment.<\/p>\n
The point is that Hagel has lived it and it has hardened him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very fortunate that I\u2019ve had those downs in my life because as I got older, it\u2019s pretty easy to block them out now \u2026 All you have to do is prove them wrong. Which I think I\u2019ve done a pretty good job with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim Murray drafted Hagel while GM of the Sabres 10 years ago. It was in the sixth round, 159th, the team\u2019s eighth player taken in that draft.<\/p>\n
Not overly surprising he went that low. Hagel was a scrawny kid and had just come off a 13-goal season with WHL Red Deer.<\/p>\n
But Murray saw enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cHockey sense, offensive skills and awareness, compete level was what we liked,\u201d Murray said. \u201cExposure, size and strength and skating were reasons he dropped (in the draft).\u201d<\/p>\n
Exposure, as in not many scouts seemed to give him much of a second look after their first viewing, Murray said. But again, the Sabres saw enough. Unfortunately, with Murray fired a year later in 2017 and no longer at the helm in Buffalo, the Sabres decided not to sign Hagel, making him a free agent in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cA (Sabres) player development guy, I can\u2019t remember who it was, called me that day and said, \u2018Hey, listen, all the best, I hope you prove us wrong and good luck,’\u201d Hagel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey felt combo of size and type of player was not going to work,\u201d Hagel\u2019s agent, Allain Roy, recalled.<\/p>\n
Funnily enough, before signing with Chicago on Oct. 30, 2018, Hagel went to a Montreal Canadiens rookie camp in September.<\/p>\n
Jake Evans sure remembers. He was at the same camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said it many times to the guys here, we missed out on a really good player, which is crazy,\u201d the Canadiens forward said. \u201cI do remember him being there. Obviously, he took huge steps after that. He got big in Chicago and really took off there. Pretty crazy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve actually brought that up a few times. Every time we play them, I feel like I bring that up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Hagel signed with Chicago and found his place. It seemed like a heck of a place to have a career. Until another curveball: getting traded to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline in 2022. And not just traded \u2014 the Lightning spent two first-round picks as part of the package. That got everyone\u2019s attention. Part of it was Hagel\u2019s low cost certainty at a $1.5 million AAV for two more years in a flat cap environment, but certainly it was also that Tampa GM Julien BriseBois saw a star in the making.<\/p>\n
But the price tag on that deal brought some spotlight and early pressure once Hagel arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was finding my groove in Chicago, working my way up the lineup, getting some more opportunities and really appreciative of that. I loved Chicago, their organization, everyone was great,\u201d Hagel said. \u201cWas it a shock to me? Yeah it was.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, I was getting traded to a team at a pretty young age that just won back-to-back Stanley Cups. For my career, that\u2019s only going to benefit me, you get to walk into a dressing room with a bunch of champions. You get one of the best coaches in the league. Not many guys get that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hagel, now in the second season of an eight-year contract carrying a bargain $6.5 million cap hit, blossomed into a two-way star here in Tampa, so much so that he got on Team Canada\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n
Bruce Cassidy got a first-hand look at Hagel as part of Team Canada\u2019s coaching staff for the 4 Nations Face-Off and the Olympics. Cassidy, in charge of the forwards, got a better understanding of what makes the player special.<\/p>\n
\u201cDynamic, competitive player with a skill set that impacts the game in many ways, a real gamer,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cBut not a guy that will necessarily wow the average fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
His inclusion on the 4 Nations roster last season might have caught some people off-guard, but it shouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrandon Hagel went to the World Championships the summer before the 4 Nations, and the reason he got on the radar is that he went to the World Championships and he excelled while he was over there,\u201d Team Canada and Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. \u201cAfter the first game against the U.S. at 4 Nations, I think everybody in Canada knows who Brandon Hagel is. From that day moving forward, I think it\u2019s kind of defined what he is. It\u2019s not that he\u2019s a fighter, but that he is willing to do anything to win, regardless of the task.\u201d<\/p>\n