What is the timeline for new Bruins prospect James Hagens?

New Bruins prospect James Hagens is the shiniest toy of all the shiny toys drafted by general manager Don Sweeney in his 11 drafts on the job.

Not only is Hagens the highest pick of the Sweeney era, selected with the seventh overall pick, but he's also a player whose ceiling is something that the Bruins as an organization haven't had in their forward ranks since David Pastrnak fell into their laps deep in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft.

Which is another way of saying there's a lot of people there who simply can't wait to see Hagens trade in his Boston College gear for Boston Bruins gear.

That group of people might include Hagens himself, to be honest.

"I want to play in the NHL as soon as possible," Hagens said following his selection by the Bruins with the seventh overall pick on Friday night. "That's a conversation with the team, whether we're doing that now or once the college season's over, that's the conversation we'd have to have."

The initial message back to that there request? Easy, big fella.

"Well, one step at a time," Sweeney said when asked about Hagens and his potential readiness for the NHL. "I think that it's appropriate for him to enjoy with his 50 family members that were in LA and enjoy what's been a long process for him, with all these kids. It's a tremendous amount of excitement.

"[Hagens] will come right back and join us for development camp. We will just incrementally have discussions about where he's at. There will be no hurry to try and fast-track James [but] I'd say that about every player. If somewhere between now and then that changes, and we feel differently about it as we're evaluating, we may make that decision. I know he'd like to play right away. I'm sure every guy that was drafted [in round one] thinks they might be able to play in the National Hockey League, but we'll allow that to take a more natural course and make the right decision for James and the organization."

A true freshman at Boston College, Hagens posted 11 goals and 37 points in 37 games for the Eagles, and had an impressive run for Team USA at the World Juniors, with five goals and nine points in seven games on the way to gold.

Physically, Hagens has done his part to work on the biggest knock against him (his size), and noted that he now weighs 190 pounds opposed to the 178 pounds he skated at during his first season of NCAA hockey.

The feeling internally from the Bruins is that they want Hagens to have another season of hockey at Boston College, and see if he can control or dominate play more than he did a year ago on a stacked BC roster headlined by Washington top prospect Ryan Leonard and Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault. Both of those players left the Eagles and finished their 2024-25 seasons on NHL rosters, by the way, meaning there should absolutely be an even greater opportunity for Hagens to be the true driver for the Eagles next season.

"You know maybe there are at times where there can be a little bit of deferment when you play with a shooter type. You tend to feed pucks that way and oftentimes they're heading to the net," Bruins director of amateur scouting Ryan Nadeau said of Hagens' 2024-25 year at Boston College. "James is a really good facilitator coming up the ice and backing with speed. Lot of what he does he does very well and effectively when he has the puck himself.

"His whole season last year at NTDP set a high bar for maybe a production standard that people thought was going to be a little bit higher than what it was this year, but I don't think it's an alarming thing for us. We think James helped drive a lot of play, love the way that he can play with pace and attack with pace, and control pucks offensively. Just a real exciting player for us."

In the 'old days' (pretty much any year before this year), it was pretty cut and dry when it came to Hagens' path: Given the rules with the NCAA and pro leagues, you'd see Hagens at development camp and then you wouldn't see him again until the end of the NCAA season. But there's been some slight tweaks to all of that, and given the Bruins a few more options with Hagens.

"There's actually a rule that they could attend training camp," Sweeney told me. "It's a little bit of a nuance, but they're already in school, so at the end of the day, they couldn't play in a rookie games [and] they couldn't playing exhibition games, so it's highly, highly unlikely, unless the player's leaving school, that they're gonna be in that environment."

In other words, it is indeed off to Boston College, where the Bruins are going to watch and see how Hagens handles an even more high-pressure role as thee face of the Eagles and in every and any situation.

"James will be right at the front of the line," Sweeney said of Hagens' upcoming season at Chestnut Hill. "He'll have the hard matchups again against other top lines throughout college hockey, and it's a good test for him."

And those test results could come in as early as late March, and potentially lead to an updated timeline that comes with Hagens in an NHL sweater.