Bruins James Hagens' underlying numbers show even more potential

Poll anyone in the hockey community and they would say that James Hagens' freshman season at Boston College was a disappointment. However, it's safe to say that expectations are rising with some of the freshmen who come into the NCAA now, and Hagens' season was a massive success by most standards.

Imagine starting your NCAA career as a 17-year-old, being in contention for the first overall pick in the NHL, recording a point-per-game over the entire season, and then having people say that your year was a disappointment. While some freshmen do enter a situation like Boston College and put up more points, Bruins fans should be dancing in the streets that a player of Hagens' calibre was available to them at seventh overall.

Suppose the points aren't enough to keep the experts from calling Hagens a disappointment. In that case, NHLFoley on X has recently released a set of NCAA player cards, which show some of the underlying numbers that you won't find on an EliteProspects page. If there was anyone in Boston who still wasn't sold on their newest top prospect, this card should tell the whole story.

Hagens had some eye-popping numbers this past season, which includes an 86% generation statistic. It helped that he played with Ryan Leonard and Oliver Moore for most of the season, but the fact that the coaches trusted him to be on the ice with those players for the entire season shows that he was an essential cog in that line. Foley's card shows that Hagens was the fourth-best forward in Hockey East, which is only reserved for the best of the best as a freshman.

Drop The Mitts Hockey summed up everyone's thoughts when looking at this player card. It's easy to see the areas where Hagens has to improve and possibly why six other teams passed on him, but the good news is that they are things he can fix. Hagens was abysmal in puck battles and turnovers, but that comes from not being the most massive player at 5-foot-11, 176 pounds.

Hagens has a desire to sign with the Bruins this summer, but it'd be in his best interest to return to Boston College and work on getting bigger and stronger in a league that has more time to practice and hit the weight room. If Hagens can make that happen this season, his battle numbers are bound to rise.

If the rest of the numbers stay the same and those rise, we could be looking at the Bruins' next generational player.