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Wild Sign Marco Rossi To Three-Year Deal

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1:36 p.m.: The Wild have made Rossi’s new deal official in a team release.

10:36 a.m.: After months of trade speculation, restricted free agent center Marco Rossi is signing a new deal in the State of Hockey. PuckPedia reports the forward will sign a three-year deal with the Wild worth around $15MM in total, working out to a cap hit around $5MM. The backloaded deal will pay Rossi $4MM in 2025-26 and increase by $1MM increments each season, giving him a $6MM qualifying offer when he can become an RFA again upon expiry in 2028, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic.

It’s a welcome increase for Rossi as he comes off his entry-level contract, but it’s still significantly less than he was hoping for. The 2020 ninth overall pick took major strides in his development last season, posting a career-high 24 goals and 60 points for Minnesota in first-line deployment despite missing star wingman Kirill Kaprizov for more than half the season. As a result, he entered talks this summer looking for a long-term deal in the $7MM range annually.

It was how Rossi ended the season that set the stage for a rather sour offseason. After cooling off down the stretch, posting nine points and a -11 rating in 20 games after the trade deadline, he was demoted to fourth-line deployment in their first-round loss to the Golden Knights. He still managed two goals and 11 shot attempts in the six-game battle, but averaged only 11:08 of ice time per game.

In most cases, that would be seen as only a minor roadblock for a high-potential pick. But Rossi, who was Bill Guerin’s first draft pick as the Wild’s general manager, had been the subject of trade speculation for some time – to the point where Guerin said outright last December that he was highly impressed with Rossi’s forward progress and wasn’t looking to move him. The Wild’s hesitancy to offer a long-term deal remained, though, leaving the two sides at an impasse for most of the offseason and forcing Guerin to explore trade packages, none of which were appealing enough to get a deal done despite wide-ranging interest.

The contract itself is likely bang-on for his market value. AFP Analytics projected a long-term pact for Rossi to come in at seven years at $7.4MM per season and a short-term one to be two years at $4.5MM annually. With an extra year thrown in on top of that shorter projection, it makes sense that the AAV comes up a notch as well.

After trade interest quieted in July, the Canucks and Kraken had reportedly resurfaced in talks in recent days, with Rossi’s contract situation still unresolved. Whether that was a significant impetus for Rossi’s camp to agree to a bridge remains to be seen – either to solidify his future in Minnesota or to make himself a more palatable trade asset with cost certainty.

Rossi’s long-term projection as a legitimate top-six center remains optimistic. After losing a good chunk of his development due to a serious bout with COVID, he’s steadily upped his offensive production each year since turning pro. He’s improved on draws as well, going from a 44.7% win rate in his rookie season to 46.8% last year. He was significantly more involved in the forecheck in 2024-25 compared to 2023-24, nearly doubling the amount of hits he laid, and he has had strong relative possession impacts in each of his two full NHL seasons.

The Wild now end up with a full roster and north of $4.4MM in cap space to open the season, per PuckPedia. The club projects to have much more financial flexibility to make in-season adds than they have in the last couple of years as a result. He’ll enter camp as the odds-on favorite to start next season alongside Kaprizov again despite how his minutes were cut in last year’s playoffs, firming up a familiar center corps of himself, Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman, and Nico Sturm.

Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.

Panthers Sign Luke Kunin

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The Panthers have signed versatile forward Luke Kunin to a one-year deal, the team announced. It’s a one-way, league minimum contract, according to PuckPedia.

This will be the fifth NHL stop for Kunin, who began his career as the 15th overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Wild. He turned pro the next year after two collegiate seasons at Wisconsin and got his first taste of NHL action after making Minnesota’s opening night roster in 2017-18. Over his first three years in the NHL with the Wild, he developed rather quickly and recorded a 23-29–52 scoring line in 131 games – including an optimistic 31-point showing in 63 games in 2019-20.

Minnesota traded Kunin to Nashville in the 2020 offseason in exchange for Nick Bonino. The move brought both an ice time reduction and injury troubles. He recorded a career-high 0.50 points per game in his first year with the Preds, scoring 10 goals and 19 points in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, but was limited to 38 games with a lower-body injury. His production pace dropped to 22 points over a full 82-game schedule the following year before he was traded during the offseason again, this time to San Jose for John Leonard.

Kunin returned to a regular top-nine role with increased penalty-killing responsibility for the rebuilding Sharks, but ACL surgery ended his first season in the Bay Area after recording 13 points in 31 games.

Since returning for 2023-24, Kunin has taken on more of a pure checking role with significantly decreased offensive success. He posted identical 11-7–18 scoring lines in each of the last two seasons, along with an eye-popping cumulative -58 rating, although playing mostly on the league’s worst team during that time will obviously exaggerate poor defensive impacts. San Jose understandably wasn’t keen on re-signing him this summer and instead flipped him to the Blue Jackets at the trade deadline for a fourth-round pick. He went pointless with a -5 rating in 12 games for Columbus before reaching the open market for the first time this year.

As such, a spot in Florida’s opening night lineup is far from guaranteed. He was receiving NHL interest, but he enters the Panthers organization after a tough stretch and now must compete with names like Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer, and Tomas Nosek – each of whom has proven effective fourth-line pieces on a Stanley Cup champion – for ice time.

The Panthers already have a projected cap exceedance of $3.725MM, but with star winger Matthew Tkachuk likely headed for adductor surgery soon, he’ll be LTIR-eligible and allow the Cats to be compliant to begin the season.

Blackhawks Sign Frank Nazar To Seven-Year Extension

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The Blackhawks have officially announced a seven-year extension for pending RFA forward Frank Nazar. The deal will pay him an AAV and cap hit of $6.59MM for a total value of $46.13MM. The deal is paid entirely in base salary and is as follows, per PuckPedia:

2026-27: $9.1MM
2027-28: $8.66MM
2028-29: $6.6MM
2029-30: $5.46MM
2030-31: $5.46MM
2031-32: $5.46MM + 20-team no-trade clause
2032-33: $5.46MM + 20-team no-trade clause

It’s a gargantuan commitment to the 21-year-old Nazar considering his lack of NHL experience. The 2022 No. 13 overall pick lands the richest total-value contract in league history for someone with 56 or fewer career appearances, which is Nazar’s tally entering the 2025-26 campaign.

Nazar, who still has one year left on his entry-level contract before his extension will kick in for 2026-27, has yet to spend an entire season on the NHL roster. Last year was his first full run in the pros after two years at the University of Michigan, although he made his NHL debut in the final three games of 2023-24 after signing his ELC. He did not make the Blackhawks’ opening night roster but, after recording 11 goals and 24 points in 21 games for AHL Rockford, was recalled in mid-December shortly after Chicago’s coaching change and never looked back.

He faltered out of the gate, recording only one assist and a -5 rating through his first 10 appearances while averaging 14:44 of ice time per game. But under interim head coach Anders Sörenson, who had overseen his early-season success in Rockford, he was extended some patience. That paid off in the long run as Nazar built confidence, including a four-game point streak in January and a run of nine points in eight games in April to end the season.

All told, Nazar finished the season with a 12-14–26 scoring line 53 games – ninth on the team – and averaged nearly 16 minutes per game. While size concerns (5’10”, 190 lbs) created some detractors about his ability to hold down his natural center position in the NHL, he saw a fair amount of time as Chicago’s second-line middleman behind Connor Bedard. His most common deployment (107 minutes) amid an astronomical 91 different line combinations used by the Hawks last year was at 2C between Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teräväinen, although he did also see some time up on Bedard’s wing.

Nazar was seen as a top-10 threat in the 2022 class, but after slipping to Chicago and missing most of his freshman year at Michigan due to injury, there were warranted doubts about his development path. He silenced them quickly with a point-per-game sophomore showing for the Wolverines and has made about as good an adjustment to pro hockey as can be expected, given the lack of quality veteran support on the Hawks’ NHL roster.

A long-term bet at what’s even now a conservative second-line price point in 2025 could pay incredible dividends for the Blackhawks if he remains a long-term top-six piece, even if it’s on the wing, as the cap increases and they reward the other pieces of their young core with long-term deals. There’s also an incredible risk factor for someone still relatively early on their development track with less than a full season’s worth of NHL experience.

The only recent comparable for someone with his experience is Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov, who signed a five-year, $45MM contract after his rookie season (55 GP). Kaprizov, however, had far more professional experience after coming up through Russia’s KHL and was two years older than Nazar is now, making him a more projectable player. Kaprizov also took home the Calder Trophy that year and had twice the offensive output Nazar did.

As such, the Blackhawks are betting hard on Nazar being a long-term solution, either as a wingman for Bedard or as a second-line center behind him. There’s certainly reason for optimism – he’s developed well and is coming off a spectacular World Championship showing with the United States that earned him a spot at their Olympic orientation camp. He’ll be under contract through the 2032-33 season and can walk to unrestricted free agency upon expiry.

Getting Nazar’s extension out of the way now isn’t just about him, though. Chicago has two other big-ticket RFAs next summer – Bedard and new No. 1 goalie Spencer Knight – who will take serious resources to extend. They still have barely over $40MM in allocated cap hits for 2026-27, though, leaving them with virtually unlimited spending power under a projected $104MM cap.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet first reported the Blackhawks were signing Nazar to a seven-year extension. Bleacher Report’s Frank Seravalli reported a more accurate cap hit in the $6.6MM range.

Wild Making Progress In Contract Talks With Marco Rossi

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One way or another, it looks like RFA center Marco Rossi won’t be in limbo for much longer. After reports this morning indicated the Canucks and Kraken had shown renewed interest in trading for his signing rights, the Wild now made “significant progress” in talks to re-sign him and keep him in Minnesota, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic.

It’s not expected to be a long-term pact of any sort if it gets across the finish line, Russo relays, indicative of the two sides’ hesitancy to commit to each other over the past few months. After breaking out for 60 points and playing all 82 games in 2024-25, upping his rookie season production by 50%, Wild head coach John Hynes demoted Rossi to fourth-line duties during their first-round playoff loss to the Golden Knights. That prefaced a summer where general manager Bill Guerin’s focus was seemingly set on trading the young pivot rather than keeping him in the fold, looking to leverage him for a more experienced middleman.

There was an effective months-long moratorium on actual contract negotiations between Guerin and Rossi’s camp, led by The Will Sports Group’s Ian Pulver, with new talks likely kicking off only within the last couple of weeks. Rossi can only sign a deal up to three years in length to remain a restricted free agent upon expiry – a four-year commitment would make him UFA-eligible at the earliest possible point in 2029.

The Wild haven’t had many forwards in Rossi’s age range come up through their system in recent years, so it’s hard to gauge precedent. In applicable situations, Guerin and the Wild have tended to go long-term with who they perceive as core pieces, so zeroing in on a bridge pact is a notable departure that continues to signify his long-term future in Minnesota is anything but guaranteed. Minnesota’s other top-six center, Joel Eriksson Ek, was an RFA at age 24 coming off a two-year bridge and signed an eight-year pact. Defenseman Brock Faber got an eight-year extension last summer, before he even wrapped up his entry-level deal.

If there’s a desirable trade still to be had for the Wild involving Rossi, applying some cost certainty to him for the next year or two could end up boosting their odds of getting the deal across the finish line. Earlier in the summer, Rossi’s desire for a long-term contract in the $7MM range annually was the principal hold-up in talks, along with only a limited number of teams being willing to part with a top-six forward piece in kind to acquire him.

Locking in a bridge deal would remove one of those factors. It’s still up to Guerin to decide whether playoff success this season is a more realistic endeavor with Rossi in the fold compared to any of his potential replacements via trade, but the obstacles to finding the 2020 No. 9 overall pick a long-term home would be easier to overcome.

Mammoth’s Connor Ingram Cleared By NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program

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August 20th: Goaltender Connor Ingram has been cleared by the NHLPA to return to the NHL per Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune. He will return to the Utah roster looking to earn the advantage back from Karel Vejmelka, who posted a 9-6-3 record and .889 save percentage in 18 games after Ingram stepped away. Both goaltenders have years of NHL experience behind them, and strong cases for manning Utah’s starting role next season.

March 9th: Utah goaltender Connor Ingram entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program today and will be out indefinitely, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports. In a corresponding move, the club recalled netminder Jaxson Stauber from AHL Tucson earlier Sunday.

Ingram, now 27, missed most of the 2020-21 season after entering the program while a member of the Predators organization. He later told NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin that he sought help after dealing with undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder throughout his career. After moving to the Coyotes in the 2022 offseason, he emerged as their starter for the 2023-24 campaign and won the Masterton Trophy for the “player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey” after a 23-win, six-shutout campaign.

Now the No. 2 option to Karel Vejmelka in Utah, Ingram missed over a month with the team initially termed an upper-body injury earlier in the season. Upon his return, he informed reporters his mother had passed away and, understandably, took extended time off (via Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune).

In 22 starts for the Club this season, Ingram has a 9-8-4 record, .882 SV%, and a 3.27 GAA. The 25-year-old Stauber has done quite well when called upon to elevate from his minor-league starting role, posting a .925 SV% and 2.23 GAA in four appearances earlier this season.

All of us at Pro Hockey Rumors wish Ingram the best as he takes time away from the lineup. He’ll be eligible to return to play upon the determination of program administrators.

Avalanche Sign Victor Olofsson

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Aug. 20: Olofsson’s deal will pay him $1.575MM this season, PuckPedia reports. The team quickly confirmed his signing.

Aug. 19: According to a report from PuckPedia, the Colorado Avalanche are zeroing in on a one-year deal with unrestricted free agent forward Victor Olofsson. Olofsson represented one of the few remaining quality scoring options on the free agent market.

It’ll be a second straight one-year contract for Olofsson. He joined the Vegas Golden Knights last summer on his first trip through unrestricted free agency, reuniting with his former linemate with the Buffalo Sabres, Jack Eichel. He didn’t spend much of his time on the top line with Eichel, but he had a much better season than he did a year prior, scoring 15 goals and 29 points in 56 games, averaging 14:30 of ice time per night.

Still, it would’ve been difficult for Olofsson to have a worse season than his final year with the Sabres. In his last year with the club during the 2023-24 campaign, Olofsson mustered seven goals and 15 points in 51 games. It was objectively the worst season of his professional career, including his time in the Swedish Hockey League from 2013 to 2018.

It obfuscated the successful run he had with the Sabres earlier in his career. From 2019 to 2023, Olofsson was one of the better secondary scorers in the league, managing 81 goals and 163 points in 257 games with the Sabres. Furthermore, given that 56 of those points came on Buffalo’s power play, Olofsson was a notable offensive weapon with a man advantage.

The Avalanche have been stockpiling depth assets for the better part of two years now, and it’s easy to understand why. Colorado has dealt with considerable injury issues throughout the last few seasons, necessitating their need for more NHL-ready options. Last season, the Avalanche used 49 different players throughout the regular season, though they still finished the season as one of the better teams.

This means that Olofsson could have more access to playing time than he might otherwise expect. He’s certainly a better option for the Avalanche to use regularly than their recent acquisition, Daniil Gushchin, and is objectively a better option than Ivan Ivan.

USA Hockey Announces Olympic Orientation Camp Roster

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Like their northern counterparts, USA Hockey will host an orientation camp later this month as NHLers prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, the first time they’ll be at the event in 12 years. Their event will take place in their headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan, on Aug. 26 and 27 and is “largely an administrative and team-building event and includes no formal on-ice activity or public component,” the organization said.

Their list is comprised of 44 players – two more than Canada’s – but will need to be reduced to a maximum of 25 (22 skaters and three goalies) by the time final rosters for the event are due. Orientation camp rosters are non-binding – others can still work their way in – but it’s certainly an uphill battle for anyone not viewed as an outside contender six months out from the tournament.

All countries suiting up for men’s hockey had to lock in six players to their roster earlier this summer. For the U.S., that was Jack Eichel, Quinn Hughes, Auston Matthews, Charlie McAvoy, Brady Tkachuk, and Matthew Tkachuk.

Here’s the full orientation camp roster, with an asterisk by each of the six players already locked into the roster:

Forwards

Matt Boldy (Wild)
Cole Caufield (Canadiens)
Logan Cooley (Mammoth)
Kyle Connor (Jets)
Jack Eichel (Golden Knights)*
Conor Garland (Canucks)
Jake Guentzel (Lightning)
Jack Hughes (Devils)
Patrick Kane (Red Wings)
Clayton Keller (Mammoth)
Matthew Knies (Maple Leafs)
Chris Kreider (Ducks)
Dylan Larkin (Red Wings)
Auston Matthews (Maple Leafs)*
J.T. Miller (Rangers)
Frank Nazar (Blackhawks)
Brock Nelson (Avalanche)
Shane Pinto (Senators)
Jason Robertson (Stars)
Bryan Rust (Penguins)
Tage Thompson (Sabres)
Brady Tkachuk (Senators)*
Matthew Tkachuk (Panthers)*
Vincent Trocheck (Rangers)
Alex Tuch (Sabres)

Defensemen

Brock Faber (Wild)
Adam Fox (Rangers)
Luke Hughes (Devils)
Quinn Hughes (Canucks)*
Noah Hanifin (Golden Knights)
Seth Jones (Panthers)
Jackson LaCombe (Ducks)
Charlie McAvoy (Bruins)*
Brett Pesce (Devils)
Neal Pionk (Jets)
Jake Sanderson (Senators)
Brady Skjei (Predators)
Jaccob Slavin (Hurricanes)
Alex Vlasic (Blackhawks)
Zach Werenski (Blue Jackets)

Goaltenders

Joey Daccord (Kraken)
Connor Hellebuyck (Jets)
Jake Oettinger (Stars)
Jeremy Swayman (Bruins)

Blues Sign Milan Lucic To Professional Tryout

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The Blues have signed left winger Milan Lucic to a professional tryout, the team announced.

Lucic, 37, last played in the NHL with the Bruins in October 2023. While on injured reserve for an ankle injury, he was arrested in November and charged with assault and battery for a domestic incident. Those charges were later dropped in February 2024, but he remained in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program throughout the season and did not return to Boston for the balance of the season and became an unrestricted free agent.

Late last offseason, Lucic expressed interest in making an NHL return but said he was still in the assistance program, making him ineligible to play until he was cleared by league medical staff. He was never suspended or disciplined by the league as a direct result of his charges. The Blues confirmed in their press release today that he has been cleared from the program and thus reinstated by the league.

While once one of the league’s top power forwards in his early days with Boston, Lucic took on bottom-six journeyman status as soon as he entered his 30s. The 6’3″, 240-lb lefty hasn’t had 30 points in a season since the 2017-18 campaign. In his last three seasons plus his four-game stint with the Bruins in 2023, he averaged 10 goals, 24 points, a -12 rating, and 198 hits per 82 games while averaging 12:16 of ice time per night. For his career, he’s got a 233-353–586 scoring line in 1,177 games.

The Blues haven’t had any major roster turnover at forward this offseason, and with Lucic not playing in nearly two years, he’s at best battling for a press-box role or a two-way deal out of the gate in camp. It’s unclear if he’d be willing to accept an AHL assignment if it helped facilitate an NHL return. The Vancouver native has never played in the minors – he jumped straight from juniors to Boston when he began his NHL career back in 2007.

Even then, it’s hard to see where he fits in if not in a minor-league role. St. Louis already has its bottom-six forward group filled out, plus two extras with Nick Bjugstad, Mathieu Joseph, Jake Neighbours, Oskar Sundqvist, Pius Suter, Alexandre Texier, Alexey Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker all relatively safe locks for spots. That doesn’t include much room for top prospect Dalibor Dvorsky to land a job, let alone a veteran reclamation project like Lucic.

Red Wings Sign Travis Hamonic

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The Red Wings signed right-shot defenseman Travis Hamonic to a one-year, one-way contract. The Manitoba native will earn $1MM with no potential performance bonuses, as he missed the age cutoff for a 35+ contract by a few weeks.

Hamonic, who turns 35 tomorrow, was a second-round pick of the Islanders in 2008. While he was a top-four fixture out of the gate for them, subsequent stops with the Flames, Canucks, and Senators since his departure from New York in 2017 have seen his game slowly trail off as he aged.

That was especially true over the last two seasons. Ottawa had acquired Hamonic from Vancouver near the 2022 trade deadline and inked him to a two-year, $2.2MM contract in the summer of 2023 after his first full season in the Canadian capital saw him produce 21 points in 75 games while averaging 18:34 of ice time per night.

Immediately after signing the deal, though, Hamonic’s game dropped below replacement level. Over the life of the deal, during which a no-movement clause prohibited the Sens from waiving him, he played 107 games with 13 points, a -26 rating, and averaged only 16 minutes per game. His possession impacts, particularly in 2023-24, were among the worst in the league. That year, he had a -10% relative Corsi impact at even strength despite starting the majority of his shifts in the offensive zone. In total, Ottawa was outscored 77-44 and outchanced 787-635 with Hamonic on the ice at 5-on-5 in the last two years.

Given the Red Wings’ possession struggles, that makes Hamonic a peculiar fit, particularly on a guaranteed deal with a seven-figure cap hit when he was likely approaching PTO territory. Jack Johnson, a veteran lefty with similarly underwhelming impacts in a similar role, recently settled for a tryout with the Wild.

Detroit already has a wealth of No. 5-7 caliber veterans on its roster, including Erik Gustafsson and Justin Holl. Right-shot depth was a bit of a concern for them with Holl and Jacob Bernard-Docker as their only experienced options behind core piece Moritz Seider, but Hamonic presumably slots in behind both of them on their depth chart as he battles for a roster spot in camp. It’s worth noting his $1MM cap hit is below the maximum buriable threshold, so he wouldn’t carry a cap penalty for the Wings if they placed him on waivers for assignment to AHL Grand Rapids.

The wild card on Detroit’s right side is 2023 first-rounder Axel Sandin-Pellikka. The offensive-minded righty will be playing in North America this season, but whether his development would be best served by some AHL time or immediate top-four deployment in the NHL remains to be seen. He’s still only 20 years old and had one assist and a -3 rating in five regular-season and playoff games for Grand Rapids at the end of last season, but given their lack of other top-four capable options, they might not have much of a choice.

Detroit has four standard contract slots remaining after signing Hamonic.

Image courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

Bruins’ James Hagens To Return To Boston College

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Boston Bruins top prospect James Hagens has announced he will return to Boston College for his sophomore season. In a brief interview with Scott McLaughlin of Boston’s WEEI 93.7, Hagens shared that he’s in no rush to advance to the next step, acknowledging that development is a, “marathon, not a sprint”. Hagens revealed the news while participating at the Bruins’ 14th annual back-to-school celebration, alongside current Bruins Mason Lohrei and John Beecher.

Few announcements will shake the college scene as much as the news of Hagens’ return. He was among the best freshmen in college last season, tracking to 37 points in 37 games. That scoring earned him a unanimous selection to Hockey East’s All-Rookie team – an accolade he shared with teammate Teddy Stiga and Boston University rival Cole Hutson. Hagens reached those heights while filling an interesting role with the Eagles, stepping in between wingers Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard after the two spent their last three years centered by San Jose Sharks prospect Will Smith.

Each of Perreault, Leonard, and Hagens scored fewer points than the Eagles’ top-line managed in 2023-24, though it seemed that was more the cause of a low-scoring year across Hockey East. The top unit recorded points on 36 percent of BC’s goals this season, an ever-so-slight improvement over the 34 percent contributed by Smith, Leonard, and Perreault in 2024.

But while Hagens faced questions of his scoring upside relative to other top draft-eligible talents in the NCAA, it was hard not to be impressed by his on-ice results. He’s long been a dynamo among his age group, with an innate ability to predict movement and put himself in position to make a play. Hagens is strong on the puck – with an ability to use finesse moves and bulky shoulders to force his way into the dangerous areas of the ice. More than that, he showed clear signs of improvement as the year went on – developing his physical presence and ability to make a difference even when he wasn’t the first man in on a play.

Those signs of growth give Boston a prospect to be excited over. Hagens was lauded as the clear first-overall talent in the 2025 draft class, prior to the beginning of the 2024-25 season. Much of that claim came from his command of the U.S. NTDP over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, where he served as the team’s top-line center and snappy playmaker next to electric goal-scorer Cole Eiserman. With Eiserman’s help, Hagens was able to become the fifth-highest scoring player in NTDP history, with 187 points in 118 games. He also set the scoring record at the World U17 Hockey Challenge in 2023, with 21 points in seven games, and the World U18 Championship in 2024, with 22 points in seven games.

Hagens will be returning to a fresh-faced Boston College lineup next season. Both Leonard and Perreault signed their NHL entry-level contracts at the end of last season, leaving the Eagles with vacancies on both wings on their top-line. One of those spots will be occupied by Stiga, who has shown years of chemistry playing next to Hagens. The other spot will be closely contested, but could land in the hands of transfer forward Ryan Conmy, or fellow Bruins draft pick William Moore. Hagens and Moore will be two of six Bruins prospects on next year’s Eagles squad, providing local fans with plenty of reasons to walk to Conte Forum when the puck drops.

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