Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Schultz Commits to Badgers

BCHL defenseman Justin Schultz has committed to Wisconsin. Schultz was ranked 56th among North American skaters for this summer's NHL Draft by NHL Central Scouting. The article says that Schultz will join the Badgers to start the 2009-2010 season.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Minnesota should have wanted him.

Anonymous said...

...and Lee, for that matter.

Anonymous said...

Minnesota State didn't offer him a scholarship..LOL

Anonymous said...

Damn, Badgers are just loading up on guys.

Anonymous said...

any ideas who will be forced out at Wisc. to make room for their now 16 recruits? No way they need more committments so what is said about being them spitting out players to make room seems accurrate. What is the NCAA rules about situations like this? Doesn't it put the student/athlete already committed to at risk? College sports is at some level supposed to be about college isn't it? Seems like since Eaves or his current staff's arrival, Wisc. has created a situation that defies what college athletics was established for.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree to a degree with "anonymous 7:40". Something seems amiss with Wisconsin recruiting. They lose three or four forwards in the next two years via graduation yet they have recruited NINE forwards for that same time frame?

Stepan
Murray
Hickey
Thurber
Lee
Barnes
Erstad
Craig Smith
Montepetit

I realize that Geoffrion and Turris are likely to leave within the next year or so but that still leaves them with quite a few more forwards than they would lose. Either these kids are too stupid to see the writing on the wall or else Eaves is going to subtly push a few guys out of their program before they graduate. If I were a recruit, I wouldn't trust a thing that came out of Eaves' mouth.

Anonymous said...

ummm...what does a Dman committing to Wisconsin have to do with their forward situation?

I'll play though. Pull the Badger roster and tell me which current forwards are getting a significant percentage of scholarship money (hint...despite a great deal of quantity, the Badgers are relatively speaking thin at forward for quality). Does the fact that there might be a walk on or minimum scholarship forward already on campus preclude a team from bringing in people to compete for ice time?

As to giving a subtle push...why would a kid that has not progressed to the point where they can beat out the bottom end of the current Badger roster need to be pushed? THey'll leave on their own like they do at every upper level college team in every sport. Playing time is king and if you can't get playing time like say a Bearson or Gorowsky, why would you want to stay?

Anonymous said...

I'd say kids like Bearson and Gorowsky are big sholarship kids, who would loose a year of NCAA eligiblity and have no where to play to earn another paid education. Why leave at this point unless a pro-contract is offered these kids should make Wisc. pay to educate them and become productive citizens. Wasn't it Eaves who said his success will be measured in the men his players become. These and others he hasn't chosen to give ice time to might be some of his greatest success stories!!!

Anonymous said...

Eaves' own son hasn't been able to get much playing time at the pro due to his injury prone nature, so he should quit the team and give back his money? Not on your life. He will continue to try to get better, earn his $$$ and try to be a contributor. Same as these highly recruited Badgers should do.

Anonymous said...

You don't think recruits look at depth charts before they commit. They haven't signed LOI so they are free to retract their verbal at any time if they wanted to. But they all have said UW is thee school for them. I'm pretty sure Mitchell, Dolan, Grotting, Bendrickson, P. Johnson are all on minimal scholarships. I wouldn't count out that all five of their partials could equal one whole scholarship. C. Johnson and Bohmbach are both walk-ons. So do the math, there's plenty of money to go around, but there are limited spots. But I think a potential recruit would figure that out before committing.

Anonymous said...

It appears Eaves mostly goes for the quantity over quality approach to recruiting. Especially at forward.

Anonymous said...

anony 9:43 understands the situtaion. If walkon's/ limited scholarship guys like Mitchell, Dolan, Grotting, Bendrickson, P. Johnson have all beaten out Bearson and Gorowsky, why on earth would you not spend the scholarship money to bring in others. Just beacuse Bearson and Gorowsky are getting moneyt does not mean that there is not enough to go around to bring in more players. The issue is as much icetime as it is money.

Anonymous said...

Bucky will have the top class for 2009. Hands down. I'm a Hockey East fan, but how they got Lee AND Schultz to wait another year just blows me away. My team BU offered Lee for 2008 and so did Michigan. Lee is probably the fourth best foward recruit behind Czarnik, Hayes, and Trevino and Schultz is probably the 2nd or 3rd best defensive recruit in all of Canada for 2008, not 2009!! BU and the other 15 or so schools offered for 2008. I'm just dumbfounded why they are waiting. Something sounds fishy in the land of cheese.

Anonymous said...

UW has 15 forwards currently rostered. 4 (Engel, Ford, Street, and Gorowsky) will either graduate this year or next. Turris and Geoffrion will most likely either sign after this year or next. So that is 6 forwards down for the start of the 2009 season.

So bringing in 9 to fill 6 spots seems excesive, untill you look at the fact that as has been pointed out that UW is loaded with low scholarship grinders and bangers at forwards and are not blessed with excessive offensive talent. All these recruits will get an opportunity to play right away but may be supplanted by the upperclassmen later in the season.

Even then come 2010 the upperclassmen will be gone and these recruits will have one year of experence and be able to contribute from the first day of the season. Untill I see Eaves with 6 or 7 recruits for 2010 I'm not going to get worried.

The question will be how many forwards will Eaves bring in for the 2010 class considering that 7 of the current forwards on the team will graduate after the 2009-2010 season.

So yes the 2009-2010 season is going to be very tight on playtime for the bottom end forwards and some will not see much ice time. The bigger problem is that Eaves brought in some walk-on players over the last year or two to make sure that the team had the depth in case of injuries and the WJC. Those are the players that will see their ice time decrease, most of the recruits will see the ice most every game.


Defensively the situation isn't anywhere as tight with only 5 recruits, and plenty of early departure possiblities among the current players. 2 graduations after this year and anywhere from 2 to 4 early departures after the next two seasons. It's going to be a case of antisipating the departure dates and recruiting accordingly.

Anonymous said...

"Lee is probably the fourth best foward recruit behind Czarnik, Hayes, and Trevino"

IMO, Lee and Schroeder will be the two best foward recruits for 2009.

Anonymous said...

Schroeder is a 2008 recruit.