REACTION: Bruins draft James Hagens 7th overall

REACTION: Bruins draft James Hagens 7th overall

and James Hagen selected by the Boston Bruins at pick number seven out of Boston College Projected to be a top three pick in the NHL draft He falls to seven and he’s staying in Boston Bruins fans are there at the draft They’re cheering this pick getting hugs all around Everyone is happy He looks happy James Hagen selected by the Bruins 18 years old 5’11” 186 from New York uh but obviously playing at Boston College He’ll stay home uh where he’s probably been living for a bit and he’ll play for the Bees Now again I don’t have all the projections of when you’ll see him Um obviously when they come to rookie camp we’ll get more of it but um nice suit by the way Nice suit So it is Hagens off the board for the Bees Uh and I’ll give you a little bit of a um a breakdown on it I know our guys Ty Anderson and Matt Doff are going to have some stuff uh set up over on 985thesportsub.com so you can uh read up on that while you listen to the show all night But yes it was James Hagens off the board for the Bees can certainly react to it if you’d like but I know that McQueen was probably what people thought they would get Just from afar and in the little that I’ve you know looked into this sounds like they got the best player available Um I’m trying to read some of the the takes on this just uh instant reaction because I know a lot of people are at the draft um at the moment So they need probably need some time to kind of digest and and and get an opinion up here But um Hagen going to the Bees sounds like they got the best guy available here Um so you can react to it if you’d like but this uh I think this might get some people excited I think this could get people excited They know him right It’s just another uh New England hockey player He’s got the 25 on I like the Adam Sandler approach I really like that Um so he was exactly a point per game player at Boston College as a freshman He was tied for 12th in the Hockey East Um people can’t believe he fell to seven That seems to be the um that seems to be what everybody is saying but James Hagens a Boston Bruin Uh I’m just trying to read some of the reports 37 points in his debut season for Boston College A player with a unique vision prone to technical dominance through possessions And I’m looking at that up 11 goals 26 assists 37 points People seem to be pretty happy about it Positional need Local guy He didn’t go to the Islanders I think that’s good This was the former projected number one overall pick that just fell to the bees at seven How do my question is why did teams pass on him I don’t care actually The once projected number one overall pick is now a Boston Bruin So did it matter that they landed at seven No We’ll see how it works on the ice but when it comes to just what the bees did not bad Certainly react to it James Hagen staying home in Boston Bruins fans are happy about this one And it was Happy Gilmore which I absolutely loved who uh came out with the pick So there it is everybody the once Yeah let’s let’s hear uh let’s hear the pick here Jeeoff Thank you
My name is Happy Gilmore How are you Proud to be part of the 2025 NHL draft The Boston Bruins select from Boston College James Hagens Way to go homie Way to go homie Now it’s been a while since I’ve really watched Happy Gilmore Is that how he talked in the movie
Uh it was more like his just regular voice right Don’t tell me this is what’s gonna because I haven’t really watched any of the trailers Don’t tell me this is going to be how he talks the whole movie This is going to be like a little Nikki gimmick
We can get into that later
Oh boy You know yeah I’m I’m cultivating the inner out So you know what I think even Billy Madison
No I He was just He would just do his all his voices though but he was the majority of it was his normal voice I can’t do a movie another Adam Sandler movie where he does like I love that’s my boy but that voice you know gets old after a while All right Well everybody’s happy about the pick and I’m sure the guys will have more over at 985thesportsub.com We’ll uh have more stuff trickle in no matter what we uh we find out or hear But the Boston Bruins they’ve selected a center from Boston College with the seventh pick one time projected to be the number one overall pick I think Bruins fans are very happy getting tremendous value for a team that truly needs high-end skill at the center position So we’ll leave it there at 6177790985 I’m going to try to get this up on the website so you all can see us react to the Bruins selecting James Higgins What do we call him Hegy What’s his What would be his nickname Hags
Hag Yeah Well we already have a Hags name
H Haggs I would gladly give this kid that name Well I mean I I don’t know how would would Hags like that I mean maybe he might you know hags or hags on Hags Hags What’s a hacks with Hag hags with hags Yes Well we uh we got the game on the Red Sox game We got the Bruins making a selection at the NHL draft We got a lot going on Uh let’s uh let’s bring in Brian Barrett He of the Ringer joining us here on 985 the Sportsub Brian um I was going to ask you what do you know about uh Mr Hagens Do you know anything about this guy He’s the He was once projected to be the number one overall pick and somehow fell to the Bruins tonight at pick number seven in the draft James Haggins you got anything on him
Well I checked in with my buddy Connor Ryan from uh earlier today and he basically told me that it’s a great value pick right Considering I just look at it from the Bruins roster perspective I think about last year and the fact that David Posternach had the quietest 100 point season probably in the entire NHL I think he’s the only guy in the NHL where he like in terms of top 10 point scorers that wasn’t in the playoffs and the fact that all right like I understand where this team is at in terms of they’re not contending right now but they don’t have a topline center and obviously it’s going to take a while for Hagens to get to that level but even if you look at a guy like Lynholm yeah he came on at the end of the season but Joe that happened when he played on David Posternok’s line ideally what you need in the future is somebody else that can carry a line right like Posanak is going to carry the line no matter who’s playing center with him right We’ve seen it with so many different guys in the past The question is going to be can somebody else carry another line So I like taking a shot at a center and like that’s one of the weakest positions on the team Wouldn’t you agree Like they need a lot of scoring So I totally understand the rationale behind this pick and it felt like he felt that he fell there So I’m I’m on board with it for sure And the fact that he’s already here locally kind of like it
Yeah I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know hey they should have got this guy over that guy I’m not going to do that But you know it’s funny
It’s the tough Isn’t it the toughest draft to do that Like we can do that in the NFL We can even do that in the NBA It’s really difficult to do that in the NHL cuz so many guys come from different countries you know Exactly Aged to whatever uh league they were playing in whether it was college or the OHL or whatever
Um all I know is the Bruins will have four prospects that play for BC next year Um Higgins Dean Latererno who they drafted last year
Uh Andre Gasau and that Oscar Yelvic kid So there’s four of them They’ve drafted them all It’s almost as if and this is something we were bringing up No matter who the pick was I feel like Don Sweeney would have been criticized Oh he went with the local guy right He did say yesterday that he’s going to take the best guy available for if this was like a you know we were doing like a fantasy football draft and we had to um you know just let it go they would have they would have picked this pick Auto pick would have made James Hagen So I’m in on the auto pick
Well I feel like this organization is in such a weird spot because all right they had a bunch of veteran guys that some of them were part of the cup team of course in 2011 but they had that great group of veterans and we’re talking about the Berserons the crates of the world Then they made some really smart trades right But they had to trade away a ton of value draft picks because they were going for it a couple years ago and it made sense I mean they had the most points and they had the most wins in the history of the NHL in the regular season So it made sense to do that But a large portion of the reason that this has sort of slipped off as an organization is you sort of have this middle class where these guys are in their prime right David Poshock is one of the most talented goal scorers in the league That’s indisputable And you have a guy like Charlie Makavoy who is like to be conservative he’s a top 10 defenseman in the league Lynholm when he’s healthy he’s pushing that as well So you have two top tier defenseman You have a guy like David Poshnock and hopefully Sway can bounce back from the season he had a year ago but then it’s like all right well you don’t really have a lot of good young players and that’s because they haven’t hit on a lot of draft picks A but B they haven’t made a lot of draft picks because they traded away to trade trade to try to win a cup a couple of years ago which I can totally understand the rationale behind that Like if I’m them I would have done the same thing Like you had an unbelievable team Like the fact that you blew that 3-1 lead to Florida I mean it’s going to sting forever And Florida’s of course turned into an absolute juggernaut But that’s where this organization is at right now So they have to start to hit on some of these young guys But at the same point like this team is it’s almost like now like could they be on the treadmill of mediocrity for the next 3 to 5 years Like you have one of the best players in the league and one of the best defenseman in the league and Charlie Makavoy but what is this team like What is their ceiling next year Like making the playoffs and losing in the first round I just feel like they’re in a tough spot Yeah Marco Sturm at least I’ll say this He he I feel like he is ready to take on the challenge But in the end it is it is up to Don Sweeney It’s not even about who um who the coach is But um just reading some stuff here people think this is a potential franchise altering pick Um seventh overall he had uh 100 uh so in college I wouldn’t even put really give it get into his college numbers right I guess the under 18 is where he was magnificent 102 points 39 goals 63 assists
Like I don’t know That’s pretty good to me That’s not bad at all So maybe this is the guy And
I I mean how I I don’t know but like how long are these guys away for He’ll probably play at BC next year right Yeah Like I don’t know the exact timeline but I mean hopefully hopefully he play for the Bruins sooner than later because you look at the team right now like their center depth just isn’t there Which comes back to the whole Don Sweeney thing right Like Don Sweeney to his credit and I’m not the big I’m not a Don Sweeney defender by any means but he’s made a lot of good trades right Like in like he has made a lot of good trades We can’t dispute that But that’s when they were in win all mode right Now the question is is he the right guy to rebuild Like everyone’s going to point back to the 2015 draft right The Abrussals and you had all these guys like the Kyle Connors of the world the Barcels that went after him and we all understand like how bad that was So that’s the question for Don Sweeney is he can can he rebuild this thing But also I look at it in terms of the next couple weeks are going to be huge for this organization like what are they going to do in terms of because if you’re not going out there right now and trying to win now with David Posternok what’s his long-term future with the organization because at some point he’s going to look at it and say you know what and same thing with Charlie Makavoy like I kind of want to win like those are two really good players that are going to have a ton of value if you ever put them on the open market So what’s your decision going to be Are you going to try to win with those guys or are you going complete rebuild Like I feel like it’s tough to sort of middle it You know what I mean Like it’s really tough to say “Hey we’re going to try to compete right now and build for the future.” Who has ever had success doing it that way I don’t know Brian I don’t like it But you know what It’s going to be hard for me to nitpick this one They autodrafted and I like that they they he they didn’t make the pick It fell to him And I’m happy with that one We’ll talk about Well Joe as I say that you know as I say that I think about the Celtics right like they were rebuilding for so many years because they had the Nets picks and what were they bad for one year right And then they’re like with Brad because Brad Stevens was such a good coach they were bad for one year and then they’re making runs in the playoffs Basically they had essentially one bad year right Like Marcus Smart’s rookie year and then after that they were good again So hey maybe the Bruins can do that

Joe Murray reacts to the Bruins drafting James Hagens from Boston College seventh overall in the 2025 NHL Draft before Brian Barrett of the Ringer provides his thoughts about the B’s.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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