2025 Bruins NHL Draft Recap: GREAT Value With James Hagens & William Moore

2025 Bruins NHL Draft Recap: GREAT Value With James Hagens & William Moore

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 oh man that was uh I mean a highlight for James that’s for sure and something we’ve been playing on the airwaves that’s been circulating and for good reason and uh we’re going to talk about that but just quick James Hagens’s seventh overall seventh pick in the draft going to BC and going to the Boston Bruins hopefully eventually but the whole Adam Sandler thing I loved it who didn’t
still trying to look at you uh did you did you get the follow was Razer able to help you solidify
oh my god no so when I said I think it was Gary Bman who said was it I don’t know he’s like one of the biggest Bruins fans out there Adam Sandler and I was like if he’s the biggest Bruins fan why isn’t he following us on Instagram let’s go do you not watch hello I’m your host hi
if he’s a real one Nessen and Sophia I need to see it on the follow
we’re going to get there don’t worry i will find a way to get that done maybe when he does his like press tour or something like that or should I just keep DMing him or
uh bothering him i don’t know
don’t the kids these days do the like the slide up like you heart stories
oh okay okay
hit them with the slide up
i don’t I don’t know what to do but we’ll figure it out maybe J maybe James can get me a follow from Adam Sandler my question to you I was thinking about this obviously the teams don’t know who they’re picking depending on how it’s going so I’m like where was he was this happening live or you guys said you think he recorded like 20 names
i feel like he did the 20 name recording
that’s annoying
you know it is super annoying time is money i can’t imagine what else Adam Sandler’s running around doing so
like he’s not Yeah he’s not sitting around on Friday night being like “Okay guys I’m in front of this yellow screen and I’m going to go when you’re ready.” Right okay
exactly
okay okay imagine they played the wrong sound oh my gosh well considering how that draft house stuff was going down wasn’t a fan of it um but I could That’s the other reason why I don’t know if it was live because it feels like there was too many things being tested out for the first time like Adam Sandler would have been here forever imagine if we traded the pick
at least we could put that conversation to bed finally right
okay yeah so I guess if they traded the pick then they probably would have cancelled the Adam Sandler intro
i would hope
i don’t know i don’t know on how up to the gun it was
but it worked out well uh it worked out well for that presentation and how that went uh wait I had one more question about Adam Sandler and I totally forgot what it was but it doesn’t matter because we’re just going to I’ll think of it somewhere i’m trying to stall over here we’ll come back to it no but that being such a big deal for James Higgins and you know him saying like what are the chances there are a lot of good movies out there he’s a young kid not for nothing the original Happy Gilmore was a long time ago and I love that that’s his favorite movie and that would have been just like such a sweet moment for him which he said it obviously was
um Casey I’m not going to pretend here that I know a lot about James Higgins other than what I’ve read right i’m not going to be here i’m not a scout i’m not an NHL scout but we’ve got to read a lot we’re going to I’m going to meet him this week at development camp he was supposed to report today but there have been some travel delays you saw that on Twitter yep okay so some travel delay so he won’t be at camp today but we’re going to get to know him but from what you’ve read from what you know what do you make of this pick for the Boston Bruins
i was actually excited i didn’t talk about him much because there was two other guys highly on my radar for this but I will say this I spent my Valentine’s Day with my best friend her husband and our other best friend they came up to Boston for the Four Nations tournament and on Valentine’s Day UMass was playing BC and that’s the only place that my best friends wanted to be was to go watch a BC game so we actually went uh Higgins picked up an assist in the third quarter on that one and after the game him and his brother Michael with the utmost patience signed everything that came at them stood for picture after picture after picture i’m talking like it felt like well over an hour after the game just the best sportsmanship and just really really nice kids for one or I don’t want to call them kids nice guys but what I will say is that I’m excited to see what his potential is in terms of timing fitting in with the Bruins and all the highlight films that we have seen since he got drafted and even beforehand if you watched his career at BC the kid’s an absolute slot machine and being able to register goals from the slot has become a big theme for any team to find success that was how the Blues kept it interesting versus the Jets and just completely putting Conor Hollow on his toes and really making him work for it so a lot of things to be excited about when it comes to Hagens but more so the character i mean my best friend’s sons now have signed merch by James Hagens that they will be so excited to wear as they get older
why i want to ask a hockey question but first I want to ask why is that the only place they wanted to be did they go there
no so my my best friend’s husband is big on hockey he’s from Pittsburgh and for some reason he’s just more dialed into college hockey than anything else and so Boston College because of their production of NHLers as well as BEu he just kind of gravitated towards that years ago and stuck with it so the boys have had Boston College hockey merch since they came out of the womb two out of the three boys that my best friend has know that they want to go to Boston College the third one not speaking so much yet but I’m sure he’ll jump on board as well so
Okay i love that i love that you guys went to a college hockey game and I love that even though not from here that that’s got the lore and the reputation
it’s loud
yeah yeah and like that’s something that will more James Higgins were saying like they see the facilities they know the reputation like he wanted to be in Boston for college and then he’s like I wanted to come back or I guess stay but I wanted to come back so this is you know such a a win-win for him and then the joke of course six guys that uh potentially could end up with the Boston Bruins playing in BC for the Eagles so people calling them the Boston Bruins Eagles you know blah blah blah bruins College yeah bruins College or whatever it is uh it’s just working out that way i know the I know that the the scouts and Don Sweeney and management they’re not like drafting just because of that but it is helpful you know we had Brick and Razer on it is helpful to not be so far away to be able to bring guys up without traveling them uh yeah so the joke here we go just found the new logo for Boston College next season and there you go we got the eagle there on the Boston Bruins um Boston Bruins crest hold on i producer Brendan just said something say it again because I didn’t catch it hagens has landed
he is at development camp okay just kidding about the travel he will be there so great i I think we’re going to talk to him today but at some point this week I’ll definitely get some more information on these guys um are we playing sound i think we heard we get to hear from James Hagens at some point um I’m asking that actually to the producer yes we are okay great we’re g to toss to James Higgins i’m going to gather my thoughts let’s hear from him after the draft hey James welcome uh there was a lot of speculation today about your hometown team maybe maybe trading up to get you were you following that and and what was that what was the your day like
yeah I mean I had uh I stay away from all that stuff i had no idea where I was where I was going to end up i’m so grateful that I’m ending up at at Boston that I’m a Bruin and that I’m not leaving uh the Boston area i wanted to go to college in Boston and it just turned out that the Bruins picked me so I’m super grateful that that it worked out uh James did you eventually get to talk to Bruins management and if so what did that conversation go like
um I I just got off the phone with them it was really good just um really excited to get to training camp and to be able to see them in person hey James congratulations on getting drafted there’s obviously a bunch of uh BC teammates of yours that have been drafted by the Bruins too uh that you’re playing with what have they told you if you’ve ever asked them about what it’s like to get drafted by the Bruins be a prospect go to development camp all that kind of stuff
yeah um you know they they take it with a lot of pride it’s such an honor to be able to get drafted by by an organization like this um you just have to be so grateful um you know training camp it’s just making sure you’re ready for it making sure you’re showing your best on the ice and you’re trying to make the team so James congratulations um for starters what uh what goes into your thought process about whether or not to go back to school and or whether or not to uh to to take the step forward
yeah it’s a talk that um sure I’ll have with the with the staff when I when I see them um good thing is it’s right down the street from each other so uh I’m glad it all worked out james congratulations uh for Bruins fans who haven’t seen your game and what you bring on the ice what is your skill set and what can Bruins fans look forward to from seeing you in a couple of years yeah just excitement um a a player that has a really good hockey IQ loves to skate with the puck um is an exciting player to watch that’ll put his heart and soul on the line um give it his all to the team uh James a couple questions first of all congrats and obviously when you were making the decision to go to Boston College you had nothing in your head that this could happen what was it about choosing Boston College and Boston you know how much of what you knew about Boston factored into that decision back then
yeah I mean I I loved the city i just loved being in Boston i grew up playing so many hockey tournaments in Boston so I knew the area knew it really well um and I wanted to be on the East Coast and ended up I went to school to at BC now I’m a Boston Bruin so it’s it’s just it’s tough to you know picture that before the draft um I’m super grateful it worked out and that I’m in this spot now
and we’re expecting to see you at development camp on Monday what do you think how do you think it’s going to feel that you know that first few shifts or or that whole experience
yeah it’ll feel good um we’ve skated at Warrior a bunch of times uh this year for for practices so it’s it’s not like it’s going to be um a new rank or anything and uh I know a bunch of the prospects that will be there as well so it’ll it’ll be really nice hey James congratulations uh were you surprised to not go in the top five or how did you kind of handle that was there any disappointment uh involved um I wanted to be at at a spot that wanted me the most and I wanted to be at a good spot i’m so lucky that I ended up being a Boston Bruin um it’s the best spot in the world it’s it’s a dream come true for me and I know for my whole entire family so I’m just so excited right now i’m really excited to to be able to say that I’m a Boston Bruin and I take a lot of pride in that james with the the way you fell a little bit in the draft do you think your season at BC was underappreciated and is there all a chip on your shoulder to prove people wrong
yeah I think uh I think next year you’ll be able to hopefully see uh I thought this year was really good um you just got to go out there next year and prove everyone that passed on you wrong but hey I’m I’m in I’m in a spot where I want to be i wanted to be I want to be a Boston Bruon and I’m really excited to get things going so uh James congratulations i know you said it’s a conversation with management about when you make that jump but having played with with a couple of guys who did uh make the jump last year how close do you think you are to being ready
yeah um I’m weighing around 190 now so uh physically I’ve been able to put on weight physically been able to to get in the gym and get ready um I want to play in the NHL as soon as possible um whether that’s a conversation with the team whether you’re doing that now or once the season’s once the college season’s over um that’s a conversation we’d have to have uh
two questions James first of all kind of a fun one adam Sandler selecting you when you saw that were you just like what is happening is this real yeah um I saw him pop up and I remember looking at my mom and I just had the biggest smile on my face because I loved Happy Gilmore um it was my favorite movie so it was right away the coolest coolest thing and then um you know as he starts talking uh you hope to hear that he’s going to say Boston College and uh he ended up saying Boston College and I waited an extra second to hear my name and stood up um from there it was just it was it was nuts i remember walking down the aisle seeing him riding his golf club or whatever whatever it was like it was over so it was pretty funny um my other question is about your time at BC when you’ve been there you obviously have had a few other guys on your team that have been drafted really high uh in the first round were there any of those guys that you learned from uh and what did you take away from that as well as have any of those guys texted you to tell you congrats
yeah um I haven’t been really able to look at my phone right now so uh but I I talked to Ge I talked to Ryan I talked to Fowler I talked to all those guys that were high picks um almost every day so they they were a big step of this year um just being by my side through it all being able to talk to those guys being able to see how they act how they go about their day how they you know act as pros so congratulations James you’ve had some excellent uh teammates at BC and and an excellent team uh probably haven’t achieved all you thought you could uh do you feel like there’s unfinished business there and and what have you learned so far that you hope to take into the the coming season with the Eagles to try to get over the top win a national championship in a bean pot uh yeah that would be fun one of the questions that he was asked was if he’s ready to make the jump into the NHL or I think it was like are you going to continue the college route or go to the NHL that’s not his choice everybody okay that is not up to him i mean it’s up to him in a way that like if he prepares and shows up yeah that in that way that’s in his control but he doesn’t go to Sweens or to you know Greg Brown and say like “Hey guys sorry going to go to the NHL.” That opportunity needs to come there are a couple things that need to happen brick and Razer were on the desk on Saturday when we had our show size is one of them uh board like what you normally see with every young player it’s like your strength along the board strength on the puck uh size speed you know maybe he’s got great hands is one of the reads on him but you had a good point to how maybe this year’s college experience might help him prepare for the NHL better what’s what’s about what’s that about Casey
what’s that about um because another thing that was talked about is like some people kind of underestimating underestimating where am I from today underestimating his ability to be the skilled player that’s listed on his resume because he was playing next to Orion Leonard and uh Perau but I think that one more year in college will do tremendous things because as of August 1st we get this merger where Canadian Canadian players can declare to play D1 hockey we’ve heers were picked up in the first and second round considering how many Canadians were picked up in the first and second round um the big jump off from what we saw over the past two drafts where USHL guys were really kind of like the go-to to grab out of the draft and be more NHL ready ohl players CHL players they’re closer to being NHL ready which is going to just level up the competition in college hockey this upcoming year college hockey took another step this previous season and so I feel like Hagens would get a really great uh learning curve going against a different level of competition in a more intensified college market for hockey
so you’re saying because which I totally agree with you but just to like recap because now Canadian players can go and play college and you have these different skill sets that are now all of a sudden competing for roster spots in colleges the competition is just going to be better and you’re going to be playing with like different athletes and different experiences yeah that can help it’s almost how we talk about in basketball like guys that play overseas you’re playing against men you’re playing against more maturity like OHL just has a different degree to it and a lot of these Canadian players have a different degree to their paths to getting over to you know American leagues or the NHL as a whole so I feel like it’s going to help him a lot and you want him to come in ready we don’t want him to be discouraged because there’s just been so much conversation around development especially when it comes to the Bruins so one more year I think it’s going to do him justice he gets to stay in that weight room and I know you can’t get reps outside of the NHL better than the NHL i just think that the step that college hockey is taking is going to prepare him so much better and then we’re jokingly or not jokingly talking about him being a firstline center so if you want him to step up there with pasta and be able to clean up the plays that we saw him do so well then like one more year at college with him being fed the puck kind of being more of that goal scorer versus the go the puck distributor I think would helps a lot
yeah no obviously this year is going to be huge for him and and I love what you mentioned about Perau and Leonard not being there anymore so you know you get more of ice time more spotlight whatever it is
more leadership and leadership yeah exactly uh and we’ll see what the Bruins deem what their needs are do they take a look at him could be a couple years too you never know you don’t necessarily uh want to wait that long when you are excited about this pick but it could be a couple years um all right guys we also got Ryan Nato as in we that would being our team but Jud Surat got Ryan Nato one-on-one after the draft just to get pick his brain on the rest of the picks and the direction that the Boston Bruins went in so let’s play that for you
uh Ryan let’s start here big picture a lot of the picks that you made today if you look at it in total what do you feel like this group adds to the organization
well I think first and foremost we added uh a lot of high-end ability a lot of offensive upside some some skill some pace um just a few players that have some excitement with the puck
the headliner obviously uh came on night one and that’s James Higgins and if I had asked you uh back in January that or what your reaction would be you know if James Higgins was going to be able to fall to you at seven what would have been your reaction back then well I would have been really surprised one that that you know to be in a spot to to pick James Hagens first and then you know to have him available a player with with that much excitement with the puck that much ability to dictate the game uh that’s just a real exciting pick for us beyond some of the guys that or beyond James Hagens who was taken in the first round who were you really excited was available to you when you started picking in the second round and beyond well I mean certainly when when we look at Will Moore and what he brings to the table that that’s a player that for us you know we certainly had some some very high ratings on him and think you know there’s a lot of skill and ability that can really help uh you know augment our group uh you know and and throughout it it’s it’s a unique process in that as you watch it like there there was a point where you know there were a number of players right before even we picked uh Will Moore that there were there were a lot of players on the board and you’re like wow this is a good group like just excitement to be able to be in a spot to to make a pick there in the big picture and you’ve been doing this for the w for a while just how vital is it to be able to find legitimate NHL players beyond the first round yeah I mean obviously a lot of focus goes into th those those first round and higherend picks and rightfully so but yeah we we’ve got to work really hard to find players throughout the draft that can add some value to the organization in terms of being able to impact um at all different spots you know it’s it’s obviously a lot harder to find a top line or top six or even a middle six or a top pair D type later in the draft but there’s there’s a lot of value to being able to find players that can play for your NHL team or become an asset to play for someone else’s team for the last couple of years uh the GM Don Sweeney has mentioned I really need to be able to give my amateur guys more picks more swings i haven’t been able to do that because the team has used some of those assets to get others to help them at the NHL level i guess with that in mind because you had a lot of opportunities how different uh was it for you and the staff this season for the draft
yeah it was it was certainly unique on our end to be in a situation to make a lot of picks um particularly a a high pick in you know the first round and have second round picks like it’s you know It’s kind of funny because I’ve been with the Bruins for a long time and been with with Don Sweeney and Cam Neely for a long time and and he’s he’s typically apologizing to us for not having picks but we we obviously were in this to win so we love being in the in the playoffs and and love chasing to get another cup like so it it’s you get over the disappointment of man the season didn’t really turn out the way we envisioned but then you’re quickly excited to say hey we can help be part of the process to restock this and get us back quickly in in the right direction so you know it was it’s kind of bittersweet to to look at it and say you normally we don’t have this this amount of picks and you know but now Don comes to us and says hey we’ve got some capital you guys got to do your stuff so you know certainly energized the group and and and really focused on how we can bring in some players that that have an opportunity to make a big impact for the organization ryan last thing and I really appreciate your time now that the draft has ended how long does it take uh for you and your staff to be able to evaluate how successful this class is and what do you use uh to judge those attributes yeah so we’re going to we’ll take some time to actually first go back and and talk about and reflect on how the draft played out the actual execution and process of moving around the board and and exploring potential trades and and different scenarios then we’ll obviously watch our guys at development camp and that’s just the the the first real step once you draft them it takes almost draft classes up to five years to really have a good feel for where the whole class went where we may have undervalued certain players where we maybe overvalued others so we’ll we’ll continue that process we always reflect and look at different ways that that we can do things better but we’ll we’ll certainly spend some time sort of just decompressing for a bit but then quickly into dev camp we don’t have a lot of time there and then you know we really go into and turn the clock pretty quickly on the next set of draft picks so we’ll start scouting as soon as next week we’ll have guys going to different events and starting to you know really tie together next year’s draft ryan thanks all right guys this from Connor Ryan of course sipping his Duncan in his profile picture i loved asking him about that connor Ryan at development camp yours truly i will be going driving there after the show but there you has it james Higgins and William Moore are officially on the ice and you said and Cole Chandler
poor Chandler didn’t get the uh the tweet in Connor Ryan’s uh tweet cole Chandler also
133rd picker exactly dude get on it uh but yeah they’re at development camp so guys that’s happening all week uh at Warrior Ice Arena from Monday to Thursday friday of course being the fourth there will not be development camp but we’re going to get to know the players a whole lot more casey really quick as we got to send it to break you wanted to give a little something about William
william Moore everyone should be excited 63 181 another center going to BC
and and he kills it on the piano which we love to see they have so many studies about guys who take classical music as a whole and how that translates to their game strategy-wise anticipation wise you want to see that from a hockey player somebody who can anticipate their opponent kind of manipulate them a little bit i don’t know i love the idea of it so
okay well on a slower day in the middle of the summer when we don’t have a lot to talk about I’ll let you talk about them for 20 minutes okay but right now
you’ll give me 20 minutes right now we have
We just need to find out his favorite song to play honestly and I’m fine i’ll ask him that today

In the 2025 NHL Draft, Boston Bruins picked James Hagens as overall number 7th pick and William Moore as 51st pick, both from Boston College. Sophia Jurksztowicz and Kasey Hudson discuss the Boston College to Boston Bruins pipeline and what to expect from these two up and coming players as they hit Bruins Development Camp at Warrior Ice Arena this week! Also, Judd Sirott met 1-on-1 with Bruins Director of Amateur Scouting Ryan Nadeau to chat about how the Bruins selected the other prospects for the 2025 Draft.

GET NESN 360: https://nesn.com/download-the-nesn-app/

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/NESN
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NESN
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NESN/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nesn
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nesn
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/nesn/