Lightning's Brandon Hagel breaks silence on Aaron Ekblad's controversial hit - "It's as bad as it gets"

Brandon Hagel had a 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs to forget.

The Lightning star lacked production, was suspended, and then suffered a serious head injury all in the span of a five-game series loss to the rival Florida Panthers.

Hagel was punished for his hit on Panthers superstar Aleksander Barkov late in Game 2, originally handed a five-minute major for interference and then banned from Game 3 for the check.

Upon returning for a pivotal Game 4, he found himself on the receiving end of a high forearm/elbow from Aaron Ekblad. Hagel's head took the brunt of the contact while also slamming down against the ice from the impact. Ekblad was suspended two games for the hit; however, that hasn't changed Brandon Hagel's opinion on the play.

He spoke to the media on Friday morning and provided his honest thoughts on the entire situation. Lightning reporter Jay Recher posted the clip of his comments on X (formerly Twitter).

"Listen, I know there's accidents in hockey and there's hits that are made that your shoulders down, maybe catches a head; sports are fast; it happens very often. You don't like to see it, obviously, but I don't know, it's tough, because you only got one of the things up here, and I guess for myself, it's, I don't know, that was as purposeful as you possibly see a headshot, to say the least," Hagel said.

"Of course, I'm all for the playoffs. Everyone knows how the playoffs works. Hit the top players, but try and do it clean. That's the reality every player thinks the same, it's not anything different, hasn't changed. Been going on for years. It's hard to win a Stanley Cup. It's hard to do it when all the top players are in the lineup, but I don't think anyone's going to purposely try and injure someone, and I thought that was the case on myself, which sucked, because I could play with a broken arm, I can play with a bad knee, I could play on a bad foot, or you go down the list, but you only have one brain? Yeah, purposefully going for someone's head, it's as bad as it gets," Hagel added.

Brandon Hagel just completed the first season of his eight-year, $52,000,000 contract extension signed with the Lightning in 2023.

Brandon Hagel was willing to answer the bell

Had Aaron Ekblad asked Brandon Hagel to fight in response to his hit on Barkov, the Lightning winger would not have backed down.

B/R Open Ice shared more of his comments on X.

"I would have answered the bell... I don't care if I would have got my ass kicked," Hagel said.

Hagel notably fought Matthew Tkachuk right off opening face-off during the chaotic first game between Team Canada and Team USA at the 4 Nations Face Off tournament.

The 26-year-old just had a tremendous regular season, racking up a career-high 90 points (35 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games. He'll look to fully recover from his concussion and build on that success in 2025-26.