It’s hard to believe that College Hockey is already back, but as we start play in a couple weeks, here’s how I think the WCHA will shake out this season (NHL Draftees).
1. North Dakota
The Sioux in my opinion are not only the favorites from the WCHA but for a national championship as well. When your roster reads of such names as Derek Forbert (LAK) and Brock Nelson (NYI), two first round picks in June’s draft, alongside a stifling defense of which Forbert will be a key part and the return of Chay Genoway and most of the squad returning, you have yourselves a winner both in the WCHA and the national level.
2. St. Cloud StateEven though I have the Huskies second, I have a feeling they could surprise some on the national stage. They did lose a major cog in their offense in Ryan Lasch due to graduation, but I expect both Garrett Roe (LAK) and former Minnesota HS star Ben Hanowski (PIT) to step up tremendously, along with their experience in goal with the combo of Mike Lee (PHX) and Dan Dunn (WSH) to help get the Huskies into the Final Five and possibly a NCAA Tournament appearance.
3. Minnesota-DuluthIf you like offensive firepower, UMD is your pick with three 40 point scorers Jack & Mike Conolly and Justin Fontaine from last season. However, their goaltending is very suspect with a junior in Kenny Reiter, a former NAHL player who has seen little action being stuck behind Alex Stalock who is now in the San Jose system and Brady Hjelle who left the Bulldog program this summer to play for Cedar Rapids of the USHL. Reiter now gets his chance as he will start ahead of freshmen Christian Gaffey and Aaron Crandall. Additionally, beyond the Conolly and Fontaine trio, there isn’t much offense depth as the Bulldogs ranked 6th in the conference for scoring last season.
Part one of the newcomers to the league comes in at #4. Interestingly, a lot of the Beaver roster from their Cinderella run to the Frozen Four two years ago remains intact and brings the ability to score goals, averaging 3.5 goals a game last year.
5. DenverThis Denver team has more questions than answers at this point. The Pioneers lost many of their key players to the pros or graduation, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be excitement as head coach George Gwozdecky is always fun to watch. The intriguing story this year out of Magness Arena might be the arrival of three very interesting pro prospects at forward: Beau Bennett who was drafted 20th overall by Pittsburgh and Jason Zucker was picked up in the 2nd round by the Wild in the NHL Draft. The third piece to the puzzle is Nick Shore, who is eligible for the 2011 Draft and is projected to be a first round pick. His brother Drew (FLA) will be a sophomore on the team. The Shores were the first family in the history of the US Development Program to have two brothers in the program at the same time. The Shore tradition continues as the next oldest brother Quinton will play for the USNTDP this season and is highly speculated to be a Pioneer come 2012.
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6. Colorado CollegeThis Tiger team, much like their rivals an hour north on I-25, have two brothers leading their team in Rylan and Jaden (STL) Schwartz. Also returning goalie Joe Howe with some experience helps the Tigers cause as well. Despite this, they still have a ways to go to crack the elite level of the WCHA.
7. Minnesota
Gopher fans, complain all you want, but here’s the facts:
1. Last year was the first losing season since Doug Woog’s last year in 98-99 when the Maroon and Gold went 15-19-9.
2. While they did have a good year recruitment wise picking up such names as Nick Bjugstad (FLA), Max Gardiner (STL), Mark Alt (CAR) and Justin Holl (CHI), one cannot expect this quartet to stay together all four years and/or carry the team all season.
Expect another long year at Mariucci if you are a Gopher fan as I don’t see the offense helping out Kangas any more than they did last season.
8. Wisconsin
The Badgers are another legendary program that will have an off year. Wisconsin, much like Denver, lost a lot to graduation and the pros this off-season including Hobey Baker winner Blake Geofferion. However, unlike Denver and Minnesota, the Badgers’ recruiting class doesn’t contain that collective punch outside of Joe Faust (NJ) on defense and Jefferson Dahl, a high shooting wing who helped continue a dynasty in Wisconsin high school state hockey with Eau Claire Memorial.
9. Nebraska-Omaha
Quite honestly, the UNO Mavs are the hardest team in the WCHA to figure out this year. While under the leadership of Sioux coaching legend Dean Blais, they lost senior goaltender Jeremie Dupont and offensive defender Eddie DelGrosso. While I believe Dean will do his best with the squad he has, the program will face growing pains in more ways than one.
10. Minnesota State-MankatoThe MSU Mavs will go through a season of the great unknown this year offensively. With more notable players such as Tyler Pitlick and Kael Mouillierat leaving than coming back, the question is who will carry a team who will lose four of its top six scorers this past year. However, there is stability in goal with the duo of Phil Cook and Austin Lee while the Mavs do return defensemen Ben Youds and Kurt Davis which will help them defensively.
11. Michigan Tech
It’s a coin flip between the Huskies and the Seawolves for last in the WCHA, but I give the edge to Tech. Why? The word is goaltending. Kevin Genoe as a freshman showed why he’s a rising star in the WCHA. If you read past the fact that Tech is not that great of a team (Thus the unusually low win percentage and record and high GAA), he does have a good save percentage, and from when I saw Tech play last season, he seemed to keep his cool in net. Genoe will better himself with time and experience.
12. Alaska Anchorage
The Seawolves last season finished dead last in every offensive category in the WCHA with the exception of goals scored. Unfortunately for the Seawolves, leading scorer Kevin Clark has graduated and is now playing for his hometown Manitoba Moose of the AHL. To illustrate the loss the Wolves will have on offense, Clark scored 23 goals, five off league leader Blake Geofferion of Wisconsin. The highest scoring players returning this season, Sean Wiles and Tommy Grant had 9 goals each. As for the goaltending, senior Bryce Christianson is expected to be the man between the pipes. Christianson will be the exception to the rule in Anchorage however, as there are 19 underclassmen on the roster this year.
While we’re at it, let’s look at my preseason All-WCHA Team:
Player of the Year: Garrett Roe, St. Cloud State
Forwards:
Garrett Roe, St. Cloud State
Justin Fontaine, Minnesota-Duluth
Anthony Mailani, Denver
Defense:
Ben Blood, North Dakota
Chay Genoway, North Dakota
Goalie:
Scott Gudmanson, Wisconsin
~ Andy Sorensen
College Hockey Weekend Blogger
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