James Hagens is making a case at the Worlds, and Conor Ryan said it plainly Monday morning. The 19-year-old looks far more comfortable playing center for Team USA than he ever did in his short Boston Bruins audition.

That's a sharper take than it might sound. Because the Bruins shifted Hagens off the middle during his three-game playoff run against Buffalo, and the results matched the role.

He went pointless in those three games with a -2 rating. Not a disaster for a teenager dropped into a series, but not the spark Boston was hoping for either.

The regular season look was tiny. Two games, one assist, plus-1. Enough to whet the appetite. Not enough to settle the position debate.

Now he's at the Worlds skating down the middle and the eye test is doing the talking. A reporter who watches him closely is essentially saying: this is the spot.

So why did Boston move him off it? That's the question Marco Sturm will be asked in September, and there's no clean answer in the rear view.

The 11th overall pick puts Boston's depth chart on the clock

The Bruins finished 45-27-10 with 100 points and bowed out to the Sabres in six games. The center group did not separate them.

Pavel Zacha hit 30 goals. Elias Lindholm posted 48 points and went minus-7. Casey Mittelstadt added 42 points after his deadline arrival. None of that screams untouchable down the middle.

Hagens carries a $975,000 cap hit and waiver-exempt status. That's the kind of math front offices love when an opportunity opens up next October.

The clip Ryan referenced is the kind of thing scouts circle. Hockey IQ stops being a buzzword when you can see a kid reading the middle of the ice in real time.

Don Sweeney has decisions waiting. Boston's bottom six was outscored by margin all year, and the second-line center hole has been open since Patrice Bergeron walked away.

The Worlds aren't the NHL. Ryan knows that. But a 19-year-old standing up to international men at center is not nothing, and it's louder than anything Hagens showed in pieces against Buffalo.

Boston gave him the wing this spring. Whether they give him the middle in October is now the only question worth asking on Causeway Street.