One Bruins player advanced into the World Championships semifinal, while three others head off into their summer workouts after the U.S.-Canada quarterfinal matchup in Switzerland on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Fraser Minten\u2019s stacked Canadian squad advanced with a 4-0 victory over the Americans and Alex Steeves, Mason Lohrei and James Hagens.<\/p>\n
For the Black-and-Gold Americans, the tournament was a mixed bag. Here\u2019s a look at how they did and what their futures may hold.<\/p>\n
James Hagens<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old Boston College product is the player that most B\u2019s fans watching the tournament were most interested in. His tourney was much like the handful of NHL games he saw. He did some little things well \u2013 a nice zone entry here, a solid screen there \u2013 but he didn\u2019t have a lot of production. Hagens had just one assist in seven games in the tournament and was scratched for one game. The one scratch was not a shock considering his age. In the game against Canada, he started centering a second line with Steeves and Isaac Howard but saw minimal ice time \u2014 just 7:09 and none in the third period when the U.S. trailed 2-0 (Canada added two empty-netters at the end).<\/p>\n
One interesting tidbit on Hagens was that his game got noticeably better when he was switched from wing early in the tourney to center, his more natural position. Bruins coach Marco Sturm said he wants to see<\/a> Hagens at center but it\u2019s unclear how soon that can happen. While the B\u2019s don\u2019t have a top-line center, as team president Cam Neely flatly stated at the end-of-season presser, they do have veteran centers in Pavel Zacha, Elias Lindholm, Sean Kuraly and Minten. Throw Matt Poitras into the mix and it\u2019s pretty crowded down the middle. Unless they move one of them, Hagens could start training camp on the wing.<\/p>\n Regardless of where he plays, Hagens will require some patience. Some players in his age group have made impact in this tourney. Canada\u2019s Porter Martone, taken a pick ahead of Hagens, has a goal and four assists. Sweden\u2019s Ivar Stenberg, expected to go in the top two in next month\u2019s draft, had four goals and four assists heading into Tre Kronor\u2019s quarterfinal against the host Swiss.<\/p>\n Part of Hagens\u2019 low point total can be attributed to the fact that he didn\u2019t see any power-play time. Though the Americans came up empty on the power play against Canada, they had a very good PP throughout the tourney so it\u2019s hard to fault that decision of the coaching staff to keep him off of it.<\/p>\n But we do have one minor beef. Two years ago, Hagens centered Ryan Leonard at BC all season and the latter had a 30-goal season. Wouldn\u2019t it have made sense to pair them at some point?<\/p>\n Alex Steeves<\/p>\n The winger was one of the more visible Americans throughout the tourney. He had a goal and two assists. In the loss to Canada, he had two shots on goal and hit the post in the third period. Last year, Jeremy Swayman had an excellent, gold medal-winning tourney<\/a> that restored some of his confidence. He used that as a launching pad to regain his game and earn a Vezina Award nomination this past season.<\/p>\n Steeves\u2019 impact in this year\u2019s tourney was not nearly as dramatic as Swayman\u2019s but he should leave Switzerland feeling a little better about his game. Signed last offseason after his advancement was blocked in Toronto, Steeves made an immediate impact after being recalled from Providence and earned a two-year deal worth $1.6 million a season. But he tailed off badly. Steeves had one goal in his last 22 regular-season games and started the playoffs as a scratch.<\/p>\n Despite the contract, most of which could be hidden in Providence, Steeves is no guarantee to make the roster out of training camp. His performance was not a bad way to go into the offseason, though.<\/p>\n Mason Lohrei<\/p>\n Not much offense from the offensive-minded defenseman (0-0-0) but he was mostly solid defensively. He would have finished on the plus-side of the ledger if not for a late empty-netter by Sidney Crosby.<\/p>\n Lohrei\u2019s season was not that easy to assess. On the one hand, he made marked improvements from 2024-25, when he was a league-worst minus-43. In 2025-26, he finished with 7-19-26 and plus-17. After he grasped the new hybrid zone\/man system, he played pretty well, especially after being moved to the right side. But he did have some lapses defensively and he finished the playoffs as a healthy scratch.<\/p>\n At mid-season, it was believed that he was part of a deal heading to Calgary for Rasmus Andersson if the Calgary defenseman would have signed a contract extension with the B\u2019s. He didn\u2019t and now Andersson is in the Stanley Cup Final with the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n