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. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.