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UW men's hockey: Gardiner, one of six signed recruits, won't wait to join Badgers

Todd D. Milewski  —  4/22/2008 8:14 am

The original plan for Jake Gardiner was that the forward-turned-defenseman would play a year of junior hockey before joining the University of Wisconsin.

Plans change, especially when players make dramatic gains in development.

That's precisely how Gardiner ended up on the list of six players who signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Badgers this fall.

That group, officially revealed Monday, includes three players with junior hockey experience and three who will be coming to UW straight from high school.

Gardiner, who falls in the latter category, moved from a defensive neophyte to a potential first-round NHL draft pick over the last season. The UW coaching staff made the call to get him here earlier than planned.

"We all thought that if someone's that skilled and going to be that highly sought after in terms of NHL standards, they've got to come on campus," Badgers assistant coach Mark Osiecki said.

As the team's defensive guru, Osiecki will be a big part of Gardiner's development with the Badgers. He likened the 6-foot-2, 178-pound player to former UW defensemen Tom Gilbert and Dan Boeser and former Osiecki protege Tom Preissing; all three grew up as forwards.

Gardiner made the shift before his senior season at Minnetonka (Minn.) High School, and he did so well that he was ranked 22nd among North American skaters on the NHL Central Scouting midterm rankings for this year's draft.

"He has that high a skill package but he's made a transition," Osiecki said. "We just felt that we needed him to be on campus so we could work with him now."

The others who signed with the Badgers are forwards Jordy Murray of Faribault, Minn.; Derek Stepan of Hastings, Minn.; and Matt Thurber of Beaver Dam; and defensemen Ryan Little of Fond du Lac and Eric Springer of Wrightstown.

Murray and Stepan come from Shattuck-St. Mary's prep school in Minnesota and, like Gardiner, they will start at UW as 18-year-olds with no junior hockey experience.

In coach Mike Eaves' first six seasons, only four skaters came straight from high school. The most recent, defenseman Ryan McDonagh, was a first-round NHL draft pick when he started at UW last season and was named to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's all-rookie team.

Shattuck, however, isn't a traditional high school program in that its schedule spans up to seven months, playing about three times the number of games as schools that play in state high school leagues.

Still, bringing players to Wisconsin directly from their senior year in high school indicates a high level of belief in their abilities.

"The kids coming out of high school, there definitely is going to be a learning curve for them," Osiecki said. "You saw it with Ryan McDonagh. I thought Ryan did a nice job, but there was definitely a learning curve there. The one thing that Shattuck has provided is that, it's high school age but it's a special program so they're pushed and able to do so many different things that they're further along."

With signs pointing toward defenseman Jamie McBain, a second-round pick by Carolina in 2006, returning for his junior season at Wisconsin, the Badgers' 2008-09 roster is shaping up to feature eight defensemen and 16 forwards.

tmilewski@madison.com

Todd D. Milewski  —  4/22/2008 8:14 am