James Hagens Will Be the Sleeper of the 2025 NHL Draft
Don't Underestimate James Hagens Just He Didn't Live Up To Your Standards
How does the old saying go, Never judge a book by its cover? And in the case of the NHL and their scouting departments, never underestimate the size of a player or the production of a player.
With the 2025 NHL Draft approaching, the buzz surrounding Long Island native James Hagens is back. However, he should have never lost that buzz, as the hockey world fell in love with defenseman Matthew Schaefer.
As Russ Cohen of Sportsology.com and NHLDraftBuzz.com, Schaefer will be a good player, but the guy to watch in the draft is James Hagens. There is a belief among scouts that Hagens has the chance to be the sleeper of this draft.
There has been an underselling of Hagens ever since his season wrapped up. It seemed like people fell in love with Schaefer and Michael Misa, who put up 125 points in the OHL. Some scouting rankings had him as low as eighth.
For most of the season, Hagens was listed by most scouting rankings as the top prospect heading into the draft. He is still listed number one by Russ Cohen of Sportsology.com and NHLDraftBuzz.com because “he's the most talented with the highest ceiling still.”
That buzz should have been there when his hometown team, the New York Islanders were announced as the team having the number one overall pick. But the debate started over who they should take.
Then the buzz went away, and as Cohen noted, “it got to the point where he couldn't do enough to hold on to that spot, at least in the prospect people's eyes.”
However, it started long before then, as he continued to drop in the rankings. Once his collegiate season was over, despite his play for Boston College and Team USA at the 2025 World Juniors, many felt he underwhelmed.
In his first season playing college hockey at Boston College, Hagens put up 37 points (11 goals and 26 assists) in 37 games. However, some felt his 11 goals should have been more. Those scouts felt that his shot was not that effective in the high-danger areas. Not to mention, many projections had him higher.
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And that is the problem with projecting statistics for a young player when they don’t exceed them or match them. Hagens is playing NCAA Division I men’s college hockey in the very tough Hockey East division. So, to put up a point per game in his first year is impressive.
However, just as in the business world, the season is viewed differently when not meeting projections. But Hagens still came up big for the Eagles in the Frozen Four Semifinal against Bentley, scoring a late goal, leading his team to the Regional Final.
As the video showed, Hagens retrieves the puck after Aram Minnetian’s missed shot that goes wide of the Bentley net. He uses his fluid skating ability and edge work to wrap the puck around the net for the goal—a tougher area goal if there ever is one.
How many times have we seen Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins do that? There is a reason he is the best in the game. And we get it, not everyone will be like Crosby, but to dismiss that goal and his stats is not fair to him and his play.
Too many people are falling in love with the new kids on the block.
Some will call it competition, but what was wrong with Hagens’s shot at the World Juniors for Team USA, where he won a gold medal and recorded nine points (five goals and four assists) in seven games, including two goals in the semifinals, along with the opening goal against Finland in the Semifinals.
Everyone was raving about Hagens then. People should still have been raving about Hagens as he went through his season with Boston College, where he should have shown his speed, quickness, and playmaking abilities. But for some reason, the play of Matthew Schaefer and Michael Misa created no buzz around Hagens’s heading into the Scouting Combine in Buffalo.
Again, Hagens, as an 18-year-old, was averaging more than a point per game against guys who, on average, were 21 years old. The body composition from a physicality standpoint is much different than playing against other 18-year-olds. Perhaps Hagens has similar point totals to Michael Misa, who had 125 points in the OHL, if he had played there.
Just because he didn’t put up Macklin Celebrini-type numbers, 64 points (32 goals and 32 assists) in 38 games as 17 a 17-year-old in college doesn’t mean Hagens had a bad season. He still had a good season.
Once again, James Hagens is the most talented player with the highest ceiling. Whether that is at the first line center position, first line winger, or second line center remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure: there is still a lot of underselling for a player, as one person said, who is underrated heading into the NHL Draft. That means there is an NHL team that will be drafting an outstanding hockey player this Friday.
Don’t be surprised when James Hagens is the guy everyone is talking about in a couple of years, coming out of this draft.
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