Public opinion changed on James Hagens before the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, but make no mistake: the Boston Bruins needed some luck along the way to get him at sixth overall. Some mock drafts had Hagens going first overall early last season, but slow production in his first NCAA season and some good draft years from other prospects caused him to fall into the Bruins' laps.
With the Bruins trending toward another draft pick in that range from last year, there is ironically a similar situation happening in the NCAA. Longtime projected first overall pick, Canadian Gavin McKenna made the bold move to leave the Canadian Hockey League and commit to Penn State University for his draft year, and so far, the returns haven't been great.
Personally, I think it should be seen as a positive for McKenna that instead of going the easy route and staying in Medicine Hat to continue looking like a generational prospect, he took on the challenge of taking on older players in college. While it has somewhat hurt his value, I don't necessarily think that should be the case.
McKenna also had a slow start to this year's World Juniors, until he scored a hat trick against Denmark on Monday night. In another invisible string theory moment for McKenna and Hagens, both players showed up for their countries on Monday night and changed the narratives of their tournament.
Could the Bruins luck into another elite forward in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft?
You are slowly starting to see arguments made for players to get drafted above McKenna next summer. Keaton Verhoeff seems like the easy player to put ahead of him, while Chase Reid is climbing the draft boards as Matthew Schaefer did last season. There is also Boston University commit Tynan Lawrence who people are circling, as well as Ivar Stenberg, who is excelling in the Swedish Hockey League.
With the way the Bruins have been playing lately, they could work themselves into a draft pick higher than sixth this year. That would be the best-case scenario if Bruins fans are hopeful for McKenna, as it is hard to see him drop as low as Hagens did last year. However, if Boston manages to get a top-three or four pick, there are scenarios where they could land their second consecutive high-end offensive prospect.
The talk about Hagens possibly turning pro next season is that people want to see him in the middle of David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie. However, why not think even bigger and start imagining a potential first line of the future in McKenna-Hagens-Pastrnak. For a fanbase desperate for offensive skill, it doesn't get much better than that, even though the defense from that line could cause people to pull their hair out.