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UW men's hockey: Change of plans for Hickey

Todd D. Milewski  —  5/14/2008 4:33 pm

It was starting to look like Chris Hickey wasn't going to be playing for the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team this fall.

When the Badgers last month released the list of players that had signed a National Letter of Intent to join the team for the 2008-09 season, Hickey's name was absent. The 19-year-old forward said UW coaches wanted him to play another year of junior hockey before coming to Madison.

Even with that departure from what was expected, Hickey said he didn't think about decommitting and looking for another school. Instead, after talking things over with the coaches in the last month, it turns out he's now on track to start his college hockey career next season after all.

Hickey said he is in the process of filling out and returning a letter of intent to make it official.

"I didn't really get to that point (looking at other schools) because I felt so strongly at Wisconsin and I loved everything about it," Hickey said. "I loved the coaching staff. And I didn't want to go anywhere else. Wisconsin was the place where I wanted to be."

The NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement likely played a role in the acceleration.

Hickey was picked in the seventh round of the 2006 entry draft by the Minnesota Wild. Under the CBA, Minnesota would have lost the rights to the Mendota Heights, Minn., native if he didn't start school this fall.

He made a verbal commitment to Badgers coaches two years ago, near the end of his junior year at Cretin-Derham Hall High School. He played as a senior at Cretin, where he was a teammate of UW defenseman Ryan McDonagh, and then skated last season with Tri-City of the United States Hockey League.

The decision to bring Hickey to UW next season takes Wisconsin's roster to 29 players, three more than were on the team last year.

The crop of forwards, in particular, is large but not unprecedentedly so. Of the 17 on the roster (12 typically play in a game), 12 are returning players, four are incoming freshman and one, Tom Bardis, is a transfer from St. Lawrence who will be eligible to play after sitting out last season.

Wisconsin also started the season with a 29-player roster in 2003-04, coach Mike Eaves' second season. Of the 17 forwards on that team, 15 played in at least 12 games.

Hickey had 31 points (15 goals, 16 assists) in 55 games last season for the Storm, but his plus/minus rating was minus-24.

Still, over the course of the season, he said the defensive part of his game took a big jump. That should help at Wisconsin, where even the most gifted offensive players are expected to be sound defensively.

"It was a good year in the USHL," Hickey said. "You learn a lot. I'm ready for the next level. I'm ready to show people what I can do."

Hickey, 6-foot-1 and 193 pounds, said he'll be training next month with the Wild and its strength and conditioning coach, Kirk Olson, before coming to Madison.

With the number of forwards on the roster, the battles for playing time should be intense next season. Hickey said he doesn't know precisely what his role will be, and that's fine.

"I'm going to go there, I'm going to work my butt off and try to impress some people and work my way into the lineup," he said. "What role I play is probably in direct proportion with how hard I work and how good I'm doing. I'm not going in there with any expectations except that I'm going to work my butt off and earn everything I can get."

Todd D. Milewski  —  5/14/2008 4:33 pm