DU May Be In The Running For Wisconsin Transfer

(left) Wisconsin player Chris Hickey was drafted in the 7th Round by the Minnesota Wild in 2006

Last week an Anonymous poster left the following fairly cryptic Comment on LetsGoDU.
"Could Another Wisconsin player be pushed out? Rumors are flying that Eaves pulled a NHL draft picks scholarship and pushing him to leave due to his continued over-recruitment.

Could Denver be the benefactor again of Eaves' over-recruitment?"
Today we learned that Badger Sophomore-to-be Chris Hickey has decided to transfer from the University of Wisconsin to an undisclosed school. Since the first half of the Comment above has turned out to be true, Denver may be interested in Hickey. Then again, they may not.

St. Paul native Chris Hickey was selected in the 7th round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, 192nd overall, by the Minnesota Wild. He was a four sport star in high school and played for the Tri-City Storm in the USHL.

Since Patrick Wiercioch's well documented defection from Wisconsin worked out sensationally well for the Pioneers, Hickey may be an intriguing addition. As a transfer student he would probably have to sit out the 2009-10 season since he appeared in 8 games with the Badgers last season.

DU only has two committed recruits in their 2010 recruiting class and an established player like Hickey might be a better fit in Denver's system than taking a flier on a USHL kid who might not be ready to step in and play in the WCHA right away.

Needless to say, several Badger fans are none too pleased with the recent Wisconsin Roster moves.

11 comments:

msbdu said...

It appears that there is some discontent among the Wisconsin fans. Sounds like they have a legit beef with Eaves

dggoddard said...

We should be thankful that Eaves is doing such a great job of identifying and developing these players for DU.

msbdu said...

This can do nothing but hurt recruiting in the future for Eaves. He drops players like an ugly prom date!

Anonymous said...

UW needs to do something with eaves' over-recruiting. it is embarrassing and we are talking about young men here...because of his bs recruiting, there is at least 1 kid a year that is forced out or leaves on his own. eaves should be fired...he is a grade A clown.

60min said...

Well, if you guys do snag Hickey, I'll certainly be interested in seeing how he does as a Pio. (Or how he does for whichever team he ends up with.) Didn't get much ice time last year, but he certainly didn't look out of place when he did play. Gandalf paid more attention than I did (and his memory is much better than mine), so he could probably tell you more.

Hickey seems like a nice kid, and I wish him the best of luck.

Anonymous said...

Eaves doesn't get the college game and seems to have an over-all compulsive/obsessive recruitment style. He wants everyone and then once he gets them he wants the next one more,that's how he got the the title "kid in the candy shop". He's spit out to many quality players who were either forced to loose a year or more by sitting or never end up playing. The list is long: Sawaske,Slinde,Heatley,Rowe,Leavitt,Auffrey,Williams,Bearson,Erstad, Montepetit,Prior,Weircoch,Crandall,Bardis,Barnes,Hickey. These players weren't committed to at 14 or 15 but later and were all messed with by Eaves. He also delayed entry on Smith and Meurer who will be suiting up for the badgers this year.

msbdu said...

With a history of recruiting like that, how in the world is he able to get players to commit to UW?

I would think families and their representatives would run from him.

Anonymous said...

The case for CHL over college hockey is having a hayday with what eaves has done. CHL players are given contracts, paid and get college packages. At a place like Wisconsin, they are forced to delay education,in many cases get limited college scholarships, and if forced to leave have to sit a year at another NCAA D1 school. A coach like Eaves takes no responsiblity in developing the talent he has recruited but just looks for the next guy. The CHL looks to develop talent, takes responisiblity for the contracts of players brought in.

Anonymous said...

from Western College hockey: "Options are limited in NCAA Are you kidding me…“the NCAA is freedom of choice” Sure sign a letter of intent and then find out after one year the coach does not think you have the skill set to play at the school you signed with. If you are over 20 you have no where to play while you sit out the required year. Or after a year at said school you discover “Mr Friendly” who recruited you is really a total jerk and again you are pretty much locked in. You have spent all your hockey life in situations where you can move from a bad situation without penalty and now you are pretty much locked in…especially once you are past your sophomore year.
I played college hockey and my advice to all is if you are smart / disciplined enough to combine high school and CHL hockey I would forget the NCAA and play in the CHL… great buildings in front of large crowds while getting one year of Canadian university paid for each year of junior hockey. At least if it is not working out with the Ottawa 67’s you can get a trade to the London Knights unlike Wisconsin where the coach can sell you a bill of goods to get your name on a letter of intent, then jerk you around to the point where you have to tranfer and essentially waist 2 years of hockey.

by silverseven on Jul 8, 2009 5:29 AM "

dggoddard said...

I agree with By that if the kid had his schollie pulled by Eaves and then on top that he has to sit out a transfer year, its a pretty crappy deal for the player.

Eaves has one big advantage. He's the head coach at the University of Wisconsin. If you don't want to play there, there are 100 kids that do.

msbdu said...

It still sucks. I don't know how much that has gone on at DU in the past. I will say one thing for DU, they stepped up and did the right thing regarding David Carle's situation.

I would think long and hard before I played for Eaves.