Shuchuk, Butters are new assistants

Mike Eaves has hired two assistants to replace Kevin Patrick and Mark Osiecki, and they are Gary Shuchuk and Bill Butters.

Shuchuk led the Badgers to the 1990 NCAA Championship and played part of 5 seasons in the NHL. His most recent work includes coaching Team Wisconsin's U16 team which he guided to a runner up finish in the Tier II National Championship this past Spring. He has strong connections to WI and western Canada, which should help for recruiting.

Butters is a gopher, but we won't hold that against him while he coaches the Badger blue liners. After college, Butters played a few NHL games and a solid minor league career. Under Doug Woog he returned as an assistant from 1985 to 1995, and helped produce a solid group of future NHLers. He has coached in a few places since then, and has a strong recruiting connection to minnesota. Hopefully he can talk some sense into those young dmen over there in realizing Wisconsin is the place to be (if Tom Gilbert, Jamie McBain, Ryan McDonagh and Jake Gardiner aren't good enough examples). He served as recruiting coordinator under Woog, so he has a lot of experience in that area.

Eaves seems to know what he is doing, so we'll see how these additions to the staff shake out.