GoPSUSports has basically confirmed what has been long rumored, i.e. Tommy Olczyk will return for a fifth season here in HockeyValley. Olczyk was perhaps the first high profile recruit to buy into Guy Gadowsky’s vision for hockey here in Happy Valley. He signed onto the program when it was still a club team. Because his first season was on that club team, it didn’t cost Tommy a season of eligibility under the NCAA rules.
So it was only a slight surprise that Olyczyk’s name was missing from the ranks of the seniors to be honored at the hockey team’s Senior Day against Michigan this Saturday.
The release stated that seven seniors would be honored but that Olczyk was expected to return for another season. Techinically, of the seven to be honored, three other are in that same boat as Tommy, in that they played for the club team there first year here and have another year of eligibility left. Those others are PJ Musico, Peter Sweetland, and Jacob Friedman, but they evidently will not be taking advantage of a redshirt senior year.
The other four seniors who will be honored all transferred in from other D1 programs and, as such, they will have used up the four seasons of D1 eligibility that the NCAA allows. Those four transfers are Max Gardiner (from Minnesota), Taylor Holstrom (from Mercyhurst), (also from Mercyhurst), and Patrick Koudys (from Rensselaer).
In light of this new news, I have updated the scholarship matrix to reflect Tommy’s return.