James Hagens' rise from Long Island youth hockey to top-five NHL Draft prospect

The NHL’s scouting combine, which begins Sunday in Buffalo, will gather the top prospects for next month’s draft in Los Angeles. The prospects will have a weeklong series of fitness and strength testing and interviews with all 32 of the league’s teams.

James Hagens, a lifelong Islanders fan who grew up in Hauppauge, will get a face-to-face chance to try to convince his favorite team, which holds the first overall pick in the draft, to choose him.

When the Islanders won the NHL Draft lottery on May 5, it was a delicious wrinkle for Hagens, whose first NHL jersey as a youngster was that of former Islanders star John Tavares. But even before his childhood team got the No. 1 pick, Hagens always hoped to go first overall.

“Just being competitive, you want to be first,’’ he told Newsday last month. “You want to be the first guy off the board. But you know, it’s something that — it’s out of your control now. It’s the team’s choice.’’

Whether the Islanders will choose Hagens with the No. 1 pick is a fascinating question. A year ago, he was projected by many to be the top pick in 2025, but he’s no longer considered No. 1. And it was only last week, on May 23, that the Islanders hired their new general manager, Mathieu Darche. Darche has to hit the ground running as he prepares for his first draft as an NHL GM and, as a Montreal native, he isn’t likely to take Hagens with the first pick simply because he’s a Long Island kid.

Hagens, a 5-11, 178-pound center, became the early favorite to be No. 1 overall after he starred at the World Under-18 Championships in 2024 and led that tournament in scoring. This season, though, scouts and talent evaluators fell in love with a 6-2 defenseman from the Ontario Hockey League named Matthew Schaefer.

Schaefer, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, is rated the NHL’s No. 1 prospect among North American skaters, even though a broken collarbone suffered in the World Junior Championships limited him to 17 games for the OHL’s Erie Otters. The experts are nearly unanimous in saying he projects to be a No. 1 defenseman at the NHL level, and the Islanders surely could use that.

Michael Misa, a 6-1 center from Saginaw of the OHL, is the NHL’s No. 2 North American prospect, and Hagens, who just finished his freshman year at Boston College, is No. 3. Sweden’s Anton Frondell, a 6-1 center with Djurgardens IF, is the NHL’s No. 1 European skater prospect.

Even if the Islanders don’t take Hagens, he still would be the highest-drafted hockey player from Long Island if he goes within the first six picks. Mike Komisarek, a defenseman from West Islip, was selected No. 7 overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2001.

What the Islanders have to consider is how it will look if they draft Schaefer, or someone else, and Hagens ends up being a legitimate NHL star.

Long Island has been producing more and more NHL players over the last decade or so, such as the Rangers’ Adam Fox (Jericho), Boston’s Charlie McAvoy (Long Beach), Washington’s Sonny Milano (Massapequa), Ottawa’s Shane Pinto (Franklin Square) and Calgary’s Matt Coronato (Greenlawn). People in the Long Island hockey community have known about Hagens for years and always knew he was destined to be the next great player from the Island.

Standing out early

“I mean, you saw it when he was 7 or 8,’’ said Steve Rizer, the hockey director and general manager of Superior Ice Rink in Kings Park, where James and his older brother, Mike Hagens Jr., first started playing hockey. “You could see, OK, he’s definitely more advanced than some of the other 7- and 8-year-olds.’’

Benoit Hogue, a former Islanders player who stayed on Long Island after his NHL career was over, saw James for the first time around that age and instantly knew he was special.

“People were like, ‘You gotta watch this kid,’  ’’ Hogue recalled. “And then I just noticed how skilled he was with the little kids. And listen, with the little kids, there’s always one that pops out. But just the skills that he had, the way he looked at the ice, the way he found the open guy, the way he skated, stickhandled. I’m like, this kid’s got it. He’s got all the skills.”

Hogue had met James’ father, Mike Hagens Sr., while playing in a local men’s league right after he retired from the NHL and moved back to Long Island. Mike Sr., who grew up in Baldwin and Freeport and played Division III college hockey at SUNY Brockport, got his sons on the ice for the first time at around 5 years old. Soon after that, he introduced them to Hogue, who by then had begun coaching youth hockey.

Hogue holds tryouts every summer for an all-star team he puts together for the Quebec International PeeWee Hockey Tournament, a world-famous event in Quebec City for players 12-and-under. Players from as far away as New England and New Jersey try out for the team, the Long Island Stars, and Hogue has had future NHLers, including Coronato, on previous teams.

When Mike Jr. made the team as a 12-year-old, Hogue asked Mike Sr. and his wife, Kristine, if James, whom he likens to Devils star Jack Hughes, could join the team as a 10-year-old.

Hogue was excited by the talent he saw in James. One night, when James was about 12, Hogue said he had a chance meeting with an NHL GM in a hotel bar and told him, “Remember this James Hagens .  .  . You’re going to hear about him.’’

Taking the next step

When it was time for James to go to high school, the family chose to send him and Mike Jr. to Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. For almost all top hockey prospects on Long Island, the path to playing top-level hockey generally requires leaving the Island at about age 14 or 15. Some go to New Jersey, some to New England and some to the Midwest or Canada, where the competition level is high, the coaching and the facilities are top-notch and the exposure to college and junior scouts is great.

So the brothers left their parents and little sister Emma and went to Rhode Island. They didn’t go alone, though; they were joined by a few of their friends, teammates on their Long Island Royals youth team, who were trying to shape their own hockey futures.

“It was like you’re having a sleepover with your buddies every night,’’ James said.

They stayed there two years, playing hockey and lacrosse, before James left to go to the U.S. National Team Development Program in Michigan. Mike Jr., a defenseman, went to Chicago to play junior hockey with the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League.

Hagens was not eligible for the 2024 NHL Draft upon graduation from the NTDP, as most of his classmates were, because of his November birthday. He’d been drafted by London of the OHL in 2022 and could have gone there, but he chose to go to Boston College, where he reunited with his brother. His father believes that decision may have played a part in why he slipped in the draft rankings.

“Maybe [the OHL] would have been an easier path, a safer path, in his draft year,’’ Mike Sr. said. “He maybe would have put up more points — he’d have been playing against 16-year-olds [in junior hockey] instead of playing against 24-year-old men [in college].’’

As a freshman this past season, James was one of the youngest players in college hockey. He was BC’s third-leading scorer — behind first-round picks Ryan Leonard (Washington) and Gabe Perreault (Rangers) — with 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 37 games. Misa had 62 goals and 134 points in 65 games for Saginaw.

Hagens played on the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the World Junior Championships, recording five goals and nine points in seven games. Schaefer had a goal and an assist for Canada before getting injured. Misa didn’t make the Canadian team.

Family ties

Having the brothers on the same team again definitely made life a lot easier for the Hagens family. With Emma, 14, playing travel hockey, things would have been super-hectic for two parents trying to follow three kids, all playing on different teams. That’s how it was when James was with the national team development program and Mike Jr. was in Chicago.

“Most weekends, [Mike Sr. is] in a hotel, one city, I’m in a hotel, another,’’ Kristine Hagens said. “And one of [the kids] is off with another family somewhere.’’

This winter, Mike Sr. and Kristine had only two teams to worry about, and if Emma had a game in the Boston area, her brothers would come and watch, allowing the family to be together.

Often, people at Emma’s games would recognize James and ask him to pose for pictures. It was a reminder that life is about to change for the Hagens family.

With James about to be drafted, Mike Sr. and Kristine, who are both middle school teachers on Long Island, finally may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel after years of making financial sacrifices for hockey. Maybe now they can build the extension on their three-bedroom ranch home that they’ve long fantasized about. The brothers share a bedroom, and Emma’s room is so small that Kristine calls it “barely a bedroom.’’

If not an extension, perhaps they could start with a smaller splurge, maybe a new car.

“All our cars have 250,000 miles on them,’’ Kristine said.

That’s the life for most hockey parents, who often have to shell out $10,000 or more for travel hockey fees plus buy expensive equipment — sticks are $300 to $400, top-end skates can go for up to $1,200 — and pay for travel and hotel rooms every weekend as they bring their kids around the country for games, tournaments and showcases.

“One of the things that’s unique about the Hagens family is, I think most of the top players that go through this hockey circuit are super-affluent,’’ said John Osei-Tutu, the Hagens’ family adviser. “They’re not that.’’

“You have to work more than one job,’’ said Mike Sr., who has a summer gig as a fishing boat captain with the Captain Lou Fleet in Freeport.

For the Hagens family, the sacrifices, financial and otherwise, would have been worth it even if James wasn’t going to play professional hockey. When he gets drafted, Mike and Kristine will have a new favorite team to root for.

Unless, of course, it’s the Islanders.

“What a story that would be, right?’’ Mike Sr. said. “I hope it happens, obviously, but he just wants to play pro hockey and play in the NHL.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.