BC hockey lands Hagens brothers, two major commits for Eagles

The Hagens brothers announced their commitment Monday to Boston College, as the Eagles add to their already very strong 2024 recruiting class. The projected No. 1 overall draft pick in 2025, 16-year-old center, James, joins his older brother Michael, an 18-year-old defenseman set to play in the USHL this season for the Chicago Steel in committing to BC.

Michael was committed to Harvard up until about a month ago. BC Hockey Blog provided insight on this last night, saying, "I am hearing that there were a few factors that went into this commitment- first, BC is within driving distance of the Hagens home in New York- that mattered. Secondly (and perhaps most importantly), BC was able to present a compelling NIL offer to James. Up to this point, I am not sure how much of a role NIL has played in BC's recruiting but make no mistake, this was a recruitment where NIL was a major player and for BC to be able to step up in that regard is very encouraging."

James is the obvious headliner in the double commitment -- he'll be just 17 when he joins BC next year as a November/2006 born. He spent his '21-22 season with Mount St. Charles, putting up 54 goals in as many games before joining the USNTDP this past season. He appeared in 43 games for the U17 team, scoring 26 goals for 66 points, and he played in 17 games scoring seven goals with the U18 team -- which included a number of members of the 2023 class. He also set the record for points in the U17 World Championships, netting 21 in seven games, while also tallying five points in the seven U18 World Championships games he played.

Michael is also a solid prospect of his own. The 6-foot defenseman racked up 26 points in 60 games for the Chicago of the USHL last year, playing alongside 2023 freshman Nolan Joyce. Prior to that, he played at Mt. St. Charles alongside James in '21-22 and the year before that.

As mentioned, the younger Hagens has hype comparable to possibly any previous BC hockey commit. On the level of Will Smith, Cutter Gauthier, or even throw it back to Chris Kreider. BC Hockey Blog also notes in his story that Scott Wheeler of The Athletic projects James to be on the second line of the World Juniors team this year as the youngest player on the team, and he's No. 1 on The Athletic's big board for the 2025 NHL Draft.

Quinn Riley, Head of Content to Eagles Daily. He may be reached at eaglesdailybc@gmail.com & @QuinnRileyBB