I believe that all 3 are using their 5th year of eligibility to stay in school. Ciccolini announced he is transfering to Clarkson. not sure on where the other 2 will be but I remember seeing that hughes entered the transfer protocol or whatever its called.
Yeah, Hughes is going to Ohio State.
Without going too far into the language of the CBA regarding college players which is incredibly boring, one of the key components is whether a player is a "bona fide college student" and when his class graduates. The class graduation seems to be able to slide around a bit and sounds like it could just become when you finish attending school and not an actual graduation, but there's also a whole long paragraph about college credits earned and how guys must be able to demonstrate that they fit the criteria of an actual student and aren't just taking like two credits per semester or whatever. Basically without knowing the actual individual circumstances of each player, it's hard to figure out.
Of course, if the NHL decided that since all the NCAA players were eligible for an extra year, the teams hold their rights for that extra year, it would all make sense. It's just that no one has been able to demonstrate that happened, to this point.
Hughes and Kjellberg are entering their D+6 seasons, which is crazy.