When will Boston Bruins 2025 first-round pick James Hagens sign his ELC?
Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio on Wednesday with Steve Kouleas and Carter Hutton. There, he was asked about Boston Bruins prospect James Hagens and when he will be signing his entry-level deal and whether he will play with the big club this season?
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Carter Hutton: “What is the plan with James Hagens? Like, is he going to make that jump from the American League, because I know he’s on an ATO, and how is that working with the Bruins? And the fact that, like, the playoffs they’re in it right now, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to stay.”
Dave Pagnotta: “No, the way that things are looking, the Islanders are right there in the mix. Boston’s been trickling, and I thought they were going to make something happen ahead of the trade deadline in terms of more of an impact-type addition.
Lukas Reichel’s done well, but not the type of addition I anticipated them making, and not the one that they tried to make either at either end of the ice. They tried bringing in a right-shot defence, tried bringing in the top-six/mid-six kind of guy. And it didn’t exactly work out the way they were looking for.
And a lot of the thought process, at least, for not making a bigger move up front, was that Hagens was going to be coming in, but you burn a year of an entry-level deal if you do that. And that’s something that they’re obviously and have been, obviously weighing the pros and cons towards doing that, because of his status as a college free agent, he signs there, and there goes that year.
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So with him signing an ATO right now, with Providence, allows him to play the rest of the season there, and then they can sign an official entry-level contract afterwards, in the offseason, but it’s, I’m not sure exactly that’s where they’re at on that one.
But I do know that that was something that they’ve been debating, and I think they want to see how they play over the next little bit before risking that possibility of burning that year on his contract and having him come in right away and then still miss the playoffs.
So you have to; they have to determine here if the juice is worth the squeeze. And they got to determine it pretty quickly.”
NHLRumors.com Note: The Boston Bruins have a solid player in James Hagens. Hagens is following Charlie McAvoy’s route of going to the AHL first before joining the Bruins. Whether that is in the playoffs or next season remains to be seen. But Hagens can still sign his ELC, like Cole Eiserman did with the New York Islanders. But GM Don Sweeney doesn’t want to rush Hagens because he knows he will be there soon enough.
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