By Tim Healey/DFP Staff
The Boston University men’s hockey team has yet to release its official 2013-14 roster, but when it does, there is another name that won’t be on it: Sahir Gill.
The forward, who had been set to be a senior with the Terriers, is not returning to the school for his final collegiate season, a team source confirmed Thursday afternoon.
Gill took to Twitter earlier Thursday to break the news — sort of.
“Thank you to BU for the opportunity and lifetime of memories & friendships made,” he wrote. “Honoured to be a Terrier, but excited for what lies ahead!”
Senior Garrett Noonan, an assistant captain for the second half of the 2012-13 season, took it one step further with his tweet.
“Tough to see [Gill] leave school but I know he’ll tear it up wherever his next stop is,” Noonan tweeted. “One of the best guys out there.”
There is no word on where Gill might play this season.
After three years, Gill concludes his Comm. Ave. career with 28 goals and 50 assists, including 22 points (10 goals, 12 assist) as a junior — his lowest total in of any of his three seasons.
Gill’s departure leaves BU without half of its top six forwards from the end of last season, with Wade Megan gone to graduation and Matt Nieto having signed with the Sharks in April. That leaves first-year coach David Quinn with juniors Cason Hohmann and Evan Rodrigues, plus sophomore Danny O’Regan, as returning forwards from the top two lines.
Why do these people wait until the last minute to leave the team? This puts Quinn in an awful bind this year. Does not an education with a degree mean anything to these guys today?
Gill isn’t going to the NHL anytime soon, if ever. He would have been a senior, a year away from a college degree.
If he left because he wasn’t going to start as a top-two line forward, what does that say? That he doesn’t have enough faith in his own abilities to get to where he believes he should be? That instead of fighting for a job, he thinks somewhere easier will help get him to the end of a tough road?
Wow!
Reality just hasn’t hit the majority of these players.
Moving now may get Gill closer to a lower minor league career or Europe, but he’ll do it without a degree that will be far more valuable throughout his life. Sure, he can always come back and finish … but why let the train get off the rails?
So without Gill and the two Privaterra’s, does that mean that BU is down three scholarship players for next season and that depth will be a problem?
Or are there some transfers/Europeans in the pipeline?
Yeah, thanks for the notice!
WTF!
With 8 freshmen coming in……we should do OK. I’m old-fashion and feel you should want/be proud to put on the scarlet & white.
I wish him well, but I want to root for kids who WANT to be here.
It’s easy to speculate and jump to conclusions given the rash of early, sometimes unexpected, and ill-timed departures in recent years. This one is definitely unexpected and the timing seems a bit odd, given it’s unclear what the reasons are for the departure and what Gill’s next steps are. For all we know his departure may have nothing to do with hockey nor school.
I think the timing is exactly what is telling…
Three players leave in the off season……where are the replacements??
Gill wouldn’t have been lacing up even if he stayed at BU. Academically ineligible- skipping and failing classes left and right. What a disgrace. Hopefully this new staff can recruit some players who take a little pride in themselves and have some accountability. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there have been some departures since the the start of the Quinn regime. Time to clean house, kick the entitled punks to the curb, and return some integrity to the program.
Parker did lose control of the program. That is why I am glad Bavis is gone. How the hell can someone give up a $100,000 plus education when many of the grads have loans to pay forever? I will never get it.
Currently, with the season just over a month away, BU only has 12 forwards on the roster. That means if any one of them can’t play due to injury or other reasons, BU won’t be able to field four full lines unless one or more recruits are added to the incoming class. This will also be the youngest team in recent history, with only two upper-classmen likely on the first three lines.