UMD's Olsen leaves UMD for the AHL...

When this story broke yesterday afternoon the first thing that came to mind was ineligible for the academically for second half of the season. Dylan Olsen is a first round draft choice so realistically he isn’t going to sit around at UMD not playing hockey; studying, trying to get eligible academically for the fall semester. Not going to happen folks.

If my memory serves me right Dylan Olsen was recruited by UND but wasn’t able to get into UND so he ended up choosing UMD. The academically ineligible spin was the buzz around this story on the blogsphere and Twitter and it's not surprising what so ever.

Rink and RUN ---- Former NHL first-round draft pick Dylan Olsen, a Minnesota Duluth sophomore defenseman from Calgary, Alberta, signed a three-year, two-way contract with the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday and will join the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford, Ill., following the World Junior Championships.

Olsen, 19, leaves UMD with two goals and 22 assists for 24 points in 53 career games. This season, he had a goal and 12 assists for 13 points in 17 games before leaving to join Canada for the World Junior Championships in Buffalo, N.Y. Canada finished the preliminary round 3-1 following a shootout loss to Sweden on Friday. The tournament runs through Jan. 5.

“Dylan was having a good year and we were expecting a better, more confident player to return to us after the experience of the junior tournament,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We knew how much making Canada’s team meant to him and that it could only help his play. We’re just disappointed he chose to make a change at midseason.”

Sandelin did note that recent academic developments would likely have left Olsen ineligible for the second semester.

If you can’t stay eligible academically to play for your college hockey team I believe it’s a character flaw a lack of commitment on the part of the athlete because they are not living up to their end of the scholarship deal, Dylan Olson let his teammates down and he let himself down. This one also falls on the coach because they should be evaluating his players academic progress throughout the semester.

Being a former college athlete, I have seen a few people flunk out of college and lose their eligibility to compete in athletics and I don't understand how they can let this happen? Most places all you need to get is a 2.0 or a 2.5 and you can almost do that by just attending class and reading the materials from the lectures. Again, going to the state schools in the WCHA isn't all that difficult, (BSU, UMD, SCSU, UND, MSU-M) isn't like attending the MTU, Wisconsin, Minnesota, AFA and or Yale and Harvard. My advice to young athletes is go to class, study and complete your assignments, ask for help if you need it, get a tutor.