Wait, did Hickey actually say that he's going back for his 4th year? Or are people reacting to the coaches comments?
Coach - "Talking at length on Wednesday in his Agganis Arena office, Quinn said that he fully expects junior defensemen John MacLeod (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Brandon Hickey (Calgary Flames) to be back, and the same goes for sophomore forwards Jordan Greenway (Minnesota Wild) and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (Boston Bruins).
Meanwhile, he said that freshman defenseman Dante Fabbro (Nashville Predators) and freshman forward Kieffer Bellows (New York Islanders) will also be around for the 2017-18 campaign."
While he did say that he expects them to be back, what else could he say? Until they sign contracts with their teams, he has to expect that they return. He certainly couldn't speculate to the media that they'll be signing contracts, prior to them having deals done with their clubs.
He later hinted that while the players want to be back, the possibility is real that they may choose to go pro:
"“If anybody else leaves it’s because somebody really pushed hard and painted a scenario where it’s, ‘Wow, it’s going to be hard for me to pass that up.’ It’s not because guys want to leave.”
I feel like Hickey will be signed in the next week or two, otherwise Treliving never would have hinted at it.
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