Eric Nickulas has decided to leave UNH and pursue a professional career. He has
no offer from the Bruins (who drafted him in 94). If he can't work something
out with them, he'll pursue the IHL. He feels the IHL route will leave him in a
better bargaining position next summer because he'll then be a restricted free
agent ... whereas if he stays with UNH, then next summer he'll have to take
what the Bruins have to offer.
 
story at --->
http://www.fosters.com/FOSTERS/articles/aug97/aug21_97/ysp0821c.htm
 
This will hurt UNH big time ... although they probably still have one of the
top-5 offensive units in the nation.  The following shows the unbelievable
stats of UNH's returning players (UNH only lost Boguniecki's 26g and 31a and
Murray's 31a from last year).
                  Ga  G  A Pt Pen.
Jason Krog, Jr    39 23 44 67 28
Mark Mowers, Sr   39 26 32 58 52
Eric Nickulas, Sr 39 29 22 51 80    <--- Gone pro!!!
Tom Nolan, Sr     32 22 29 51 52
Derek Bekar, Jr   39 18 21 39 34
Mike Souza, So    39 15 11 26 20
Jay Shipulski, So 38  7 11 18  2
Rob Gagnon, Sr    37  7 11 18 24
John Sadowski, So 38 10  6 16 38
 
His 30+ expected goals will be missed, as will his power-play presence. But UNH
still has an incredible power-play in the likes of Souza, Bekar and Nolan as
well as a possible nation leader in scoring with Krog (who had 67 pts as a
sophomore).
 
As a HockeyEast Lowell fan, I hate to see any HockeyEast team lose any
competitive power. If we beat UNH this year (which I'm surely hoping for), then
I'll have to remember its a "Nickul-less" UNH.
 
- Paul.
 
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