Wisconsin men’s hockey head coach Mike Eaves announced the signing of three players to National Letters of Intent in the early signing period on Wednesday. The signees were forwards Nicolas Kerdiles and Morgan Zulinick and defenseman Kevin Schulze.
Kerdiles, a native of Irvine, Calif., is currently playing for the U.S. Under-18 team, which won the 2011 Under-18 Four Nations Tournament in Switzerland. He led the tournament with five goals and five points. In 17 games this season with the U-18 team, Kerdiles has five goals and his 12 points are tied for the team lead.
In 60 games last season split between the U.S. U-18 and U-17 teams, Kerdines had a total of 20 goals and 47 points.
Eaves described the 6 foot 1 inch Kerdiles as a “big forward with great feet, good first step and is really good in corners,” adding that he believes Kerdiles is one of the top players in the country in his age group.
Zulinick will come to Madison next year after two seasons with the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the British Colmbia Hockey League. In 38 games with them last season, Zulinick scored 12 goals and 29 points, and has seven goals and 24 points through 17 games this season.
Zulinick’s impending arrival strengthens the Silverbacks-to-Badgers pipeline. Current UW forwards sophomore Mark Zengerle and junior Derek Lee played for Salmon Arm, as well as former forward Ben Street and former goaltender Scott Gudmandson.
“He sees the ice very well and protects the puck well,” Eaves said of Zulinick. “He’s a very strong competitor who will being an offensive flair to our forward group.”
Schulze, a 5 foot 9 inch product of White Bear Lake, Minn., is playing in the USHL this season, spending time with the Muskegon Lumberjacks before a recent trade sent him to the Omaha Lancers. In eight games with Muskegon, Schulze had six assists and three set-ups in six games for the Lancers.
Schulze was a captain for Hill-Murray High School in Minnesota, and during the 2010-’11 season had four goals and 29 assists in 28 games.
Eaves said that he is impressed with the blue liner, despite his below-average size for the position.
“Kevin is a real smooth skating young defenseman,” he said. “For his size, he plays very aggressively and very well away from the puck.”
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
