MADISON, Wis. -- It's been a long offseason for No. 16 Wisconsin men's hockey, made long by the attention on the potential for when the team finally opens 2019-20 during a trip to No. 10 Boston College and Merrimack College.
Here are six quick things to know before tuning into the 2019-2020 season opening weekend.
1. SCORE, SCORE, SCORE: The Badgers return 78 percent of their point production for last year, even after losing six season. Top producers coming back to the team this year include assistant captain
Sean Dhooghe, captain
Wyatt Kalynuk and Linus Wiessbach. Wisconsin also brings in a vaunted freshman class that includes 2019 NHL first-round draft picks
Alex Turcotte and
Cole Caufield, and 2020 NHL Central Scouting A-rated draft prospect
Dylan Holloway, among others.
2. FEELING A DRAFT:Â Friday's game at Boston College will include five of the first 16 draft picks from this year's NHL draft. Led by
Alex Turcotte at No. 5 by the Los Angeles Kings, the game will also feature BC's Matt Boldy (No. 12 - Minnesota), BC's Spencer Knight (No 13 - Florida),
Cole Caufield at No. 15 to Montreal and BC's Alex Newhook (No. 16 - Colorado).Â
Potential 2020 first-round pick
Dylan Holloway will also suit up for the Badgers.
A combined six of college hockey's 11 first-round draft picks are on the two teams. The aforementioned five freshman, plus UW sophomore defenseman
K'Andre Miller (2018 - No. 22 - New York Rangers).
3. BADGER BROTHERS: The 2019-20 roster contains three sets of brothers on the team including Jason and
Sean Dhooghe, Brock and Cole Caulfield and Ryder and
Shay Donovan. This is something the Wisconsin coaching staff is very familiar with as
Tony Granato (1984-88) and his brothers Don (1987-91) and Rob (1992-94) skated at UW, while
Mark Strobel (1991-95) and his twin brother Mike (1991-96) also played for the Badgers.
4. PRE-SEASON TUNE UPS: Wisconsin traveled to Canada earlier this summer for two exhibition games at British Columbia, and held a Red/White Scrimmage last weekend at the Kohl Center. The team won both games versus UBC, 3-0 and 7-5.
5. SCOUTING BOSTON COLLEGE AND MERRIMACK: The No. 10 Eagles were 14-22-3 last season apart of the Hockey East Conference. They return all but five seniors from last year's team that lost to Wisconsin twice in the beginning of the season. Merrimack was 7-24-3 last season, also out of the Hockey east conference. The Warriors bring on 16 new freshman to the team this season in hopes of a fresh look.
6. HOW TO WATCH: Fans can tune into the game against Boston College on NESN+ or listen in on 1310 WIBA radio. The game versus Merrimack can be heard on 1070 WTSO. Link for video streams can be found on the
UWBadgers.com schedule page. Fans can also tune into twitter for live updates from the men's hockey page
@BadgerMHockey.
