Evan Richardson Reportedly Leaves BC Hockey Program

Evan Richardson became a bit of a man of mystery and a message board hero last year after scoring two goals in the four games he appeared in as a freshman. When other forwards struggled, the calls would pop up here and elsewhere to put Richardson into the lineup. However, despite looking pretty good when he was in the lineup, and coming in as a reasonably highly touted prospect out of the BCHL, Richardson rarely saw the ice last year, and it led some to speculate that he might look to leave BC at year's end.

As was first noted by BCI commenter "hockey truth" last Friday, and subsequently reported by The Boston College Hockey Blog last night, Richardson will not be returning to the program next year, with no news on whether he'll be transferring, or heading back north of the border.

This is a bit of a bummer as with the lineup spots opened up for this coming season, I certainly expected Richardson to play a role. Richardson scored 47 points in 44 games in his 2012-13 BCHL season with the Powell River Kings, after scoring 55 points the previous year. Richardson also got some attention from Hockey Canada with a selection to the Canada West Under-19 team in two straight years at the World Junior A challenge.

As to whether Richardson was going to definitely see a lot of games this year, or be one of those guys on the bubble, remained to be seen - and given this news, I'm guessing it was probably more of an on the bubble situation.

BC already had a slot open for next year, and adding this second open slot only increases the hope that Miles Wood will be able to accelerate and join the team in the fall. But given how long it's been since we heard anything on that front, I'm starting to wonder if that might not happen. Perhaps this new roster situation will be just the opportunity Cam SpirOO has been waiting for.

As always, good luck to Evan in his future endeavors. With his abilities, he surely has plenty of opportunities in hockey going forward, be it at another school, in Canada, or elsewhere. Hopefully the next situation works out better for him.