BRANDON — Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel is coming off the best season of his NHL career with a 35-goal performance as part of a 90-point showing that ended with him being named an NHL second-team all-star.

Hagel, 27, also has emerged as one of the Lightning’s emotional leaders. He doesn’t wear a letter on his jersey, but there’s no question that his passion for winning rubs off on his teammates.

The future is bright for Hagel. He’s in the second year of an eight-year deal that should keep him in a Lightning uniform through the 2032 season. And after helping Canada to gold in last season’s 4 Nations Faceoff, he’s in line to play for Canada and Lightning coach Jon Cooper in the Olympics in Italy in February.

But last season didn’t end the way Hagel wanted it to. After returning from a one-game suspension for a hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2 of the Lightning’s first-round series loss to Florida, he was knocked out of Game 4 by an elbow to the head from Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad and missed the remainder of the series with a concussion.

In this interview edited for length and clarity, Hagel talked about what fueled him during the summer, his outlook for this season’s Lightning team, whether the tension with Florida will carry over, his emergence as a leader and how representing Canada in the Olympics would mark a full-circle moment for him.

Q: You had this great 2024-25 season and the team played well in the regular season, but the playoffs ended in disappointment again. How do you use that as motivation for this season?

“I think the worst part is three years in a row going out in the first round. That’s not what we know here. I know a lot of guys don’t know that. I think that’s more of the sour taste in your mouth, and that’s just not going to be acceptable anymore, especially with the group we have in this room and the belief we continue to preach in this room — with the guys we have, the depth we have, and the goalie, and the team and the best player [Nikita Kucherov] in the world and the best coaches in the world.

“It kind of comes down to us now. We’ve almost lost more first rounds than we’ve won. Listen, you’ve just got to find a way to win in the playoffs. [Florida] just found ways to win; that’s really what it came down to.”

Q: The temperature of that Lightning-Panthers series intensified as it went on. Clearly there was bad blood there, especially with the Ekblad hit. Will there be any carryover going into this season?

“If anything’s gonna carry over, I don’t think it’s gonna be about the hit. I think it’s gonna be about losing to them and them being our almost big brother at this point, where we were that to them for a long time. So I don’t think anything will carry over other than that. We just need to get back into that winning mentality.

“I think the rivalry is going to continue to stay. It’s going to stay forever, and especially when two of the best teams in the NHL and the teams that have represented the Eastern Conference are both in Florida. That’s the mentality and it’s not going to be easy. They’re a good hockey team and they’ve been a great hockey team for many years. But also we’re a really good hockey team, and we’re just not finding ways to win.”

Q: What level are you hoping to take your game to this season?

“It’s kind of getting to a point where it’s just kind of finding consistency. That’s all I want to do. I want to come and be a consistent player and whatever numbers I happen to have at the end of the year, it’s good. But it’s also [team] success. Seven years into my career, that’s something I’m trying to get.

“Obviously, my No. 1 goal is trying to help that team get to that next level. We bring back the exact same team, so you don’t really need to make anyone feel at home or learn new types of things. The management’s giving you another crack at it  because they had so much belief in you, and we’re gonna go out there try to do that because it’s time to do that.”

Q: You’ve really emerged as a leader. How have you grown into that role of becoming more vocal among your teammates?

“You’re lucky enough to get to learn from guys that won Stanley Cups and knew what it took to get to that next level. And you get to sit there for the first couple, three or four years and just kind of watch it through your eyes and it really shows what a leader is. And we’ve had so many guys come through this dressing room that were incredible leaders. Guys like Pears [Corey Perry], Patty [Maroon], Stammer [Steven Stamkos], [Pierre-Edouard] Bellemare, guys that have left, that you learn from.

“Obviously, everyone loves a little bit of competitiveness and a little speaking up, and not everyone leads that way. And I think that’s a little bit of my personality, so I’ve tried to take a little bit more there, and I think that everyone in this dressing room wants to win. Sometimes you take out those loud voices, and some guys lead different ways, and there was an opportunity to maybe speak up a little bit for myself, and I’m going to continue to try and do that as well as try to lead on the ice.

Q: You spent a lot of time in the offseason working with Nikita Kucherov. What have you learned from him?

“It really helped last year, just even the little details you see going on the ice, whether it’s the drill we’re doing or just certain little things that kind of grow throughout your game that you never even knew existed. It’s something positive when you can add something like that to your game, something that you didn’t even know that exists.

“I’m 27 years old and I’ve been playing the game for a long time. You continue to learn and he’s the best at what he does in the world. And if you’re going to learn from someone, it’s probably going to be him. And obviously, I like to score goals, so does he.

“You’re just doing a drill and you’re just kind of sitting there, and like, ‘Where would I do this?’ and Kuch is so good at just actually explaining the situation throughout a game. And I go, like, ‘OK, that makes sense.’ You’re like, ‘Oh, dang. I didn’t even know that was a better way to do it,’ whether it was to take the puck out from behind the net or off the wall or little things like that. It’s more thinking through the game.

Q: You could have the opportunity later this season to represent Canada in the Olympics. What would that mean to you?

“It would obviously be a dream come true. Listen, if you told me a year ago or two years ago that I would have the opportunity to possibly make the Olympic team, I would call you crazy. It gives me shivers thinking about it because of the stuff I went through in my career. I’ve been cut from many different teams and not signed, and then all of a sudden, seven years from now on, I have a chance to potentially make the Olympic team.

“Did I think of it as a kid? Not really, I would have loved to, but I never thought it was possible, to be honest. You always dreamed of the Stanley Cup as a kid, and then obviously, watching the Olympics is pretty cool, but I don’t know if that’s even 1% of the world. I just never thought I’d have a chance to do that. There’s no words really to describe what that would mean to a Canadian kid.”

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/29/brandon-hagel-focused-on-bringing-lightning-back-to-top/