College Sports

Lacey Eden, Marianne Picard returning to Wisconsin hockey

Lacey Eden didn’t tip her hand on an important decision as the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team went through a postseason run to the NCAA championship. Was she planning to return for a fifth season in the Badgers’ forward corps while vying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic roster? Or would she take […]

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Lacey Eden didn’t tip her hand on an important decision as the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team went through a postseason run to the NCAA championship.

Was she planning to return for a fifth season in the Badgers’ forward corps while vying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic roster? Or would she take her degree and declare for the PWHL draft?


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“I think you’re going to have to wait until after the season to find out about those plans,” Eden said in March.

She’s back, and another Badgers forward also is planning on playing her fifth season of eligibility in 2025-26.

Eden and center Marianne Picard are planning on being part of Wisconsin’s NCAA title defense, the team announced Friday evening, adding to the key players returning for next season.

The deadline to declare for the PWHL draft was Thursday. The decision to return by Eden and Picard meant they didn’t choose to enter the June 24 draft in which Patty Kazmaier Award winner Casey O’Brien of Wisconsin is expected to be a high pick.

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Wisconsin right winger Lacey Eden scores one of her two goals against Ohio State on Jan. 2 at LaBahn Arena. Eden announced Friday that she will return for her fifth season of eligibility during the 2025-26 season.




Eden was fourth on the Badgers roster in 2024-25 with 24 goals and fifth with 58 points. She played most of the season as the second-line right wing but moved up to play on the left side of the top line with O’Brien and Kirsten Simms in the final weeks.

She was a second-team All-WCHA pick and set up Simms’ overtime rebound goal that beat Ohio State in the national championship game.

Eden joined the Badgers midway through the 2020-21 season because Ivy League pandemic restrictions caused Princeton, her original college destination, to halt athletics for the year. Players who were on teams that season had their NCAA eligibility extended to five seasons, and while most have completed that period, Eden’s clock extended again because she was away from the Badgers in 2021-22 for Olympic centralization.


After playing in the 2022 Olympics and in the last five World Championships, Eden will be competing for an Olympic roster spot next season. But things won’t look the same for hopefuls from NCAA teams as they have in the past.

The U.S. and Canada previously took college players being considered for the Olympic teams out of school for the entire season for a residency program to select the final roster. That won’t be the case leading into the Milan Cortina Games in February because of pro players’ season-long PWHL commitments. The league wasn’t in existence during the last Olympic season.

What it means for Eden and other U.S. Olympic roster contenders who’ll be playing for Wisconsin next season isn’t clear. The rough plan that some involved in the process have described includes players going to monthly camps during the season and one leading into the Olympic tournament that runs Feb. 5-19.

Five Badgers players — forwards Eden, Simms and Laila Edwards, defender Caroline Harvey and goalie Ava McNaughton — were on the U.S. roster for the World Championship in April and could be in contention for an Olympics spot. Incoming freshman forward Adéla Šapovalivová has played for Czechia in the last four World Championships, so she could have a spot in Italy, too.


That could deplete Wisconsin’s depth, especially at forward. Picard’s return helps in providing a veteran presence at center.

Picard scored eight goals and assisted on 10 in 41 games as the Badgers’ third-line center. She was limited to six games because of an injury in her freshman season of 2021-22 and qualified for a medical redshirt that opened the door to extending her Wisconsin career.



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