I know it's dangerous to do projections at any point in time, especially before knowing what the early defections will mean. But for fun, here are mine.
I think the Sioux will finish in the 3-5 range in the WCHA next season. It's hard to say where, but if I had to say, it would be 4th in what I think will be a very, very strong conference.
TOP 2
CC will have a strong squad back with solid goaltending in Zaba. They only lose McElhinney in goal, one big D in Petiot and a forward in Polaski. They bring in a solid recruiting class that should more than make up for those losses.
MN will be very strong next year, as their adequate but inexperienced D will have a year under their belts. I think some are underestimating MN's goalie situation. Frazee appears to be a VERY good goalie. Sure, it remains to be seen how good he in in D1 play but he's played awfully well against very strong competition to this point. MN replaces Tallackson, Smaagaard, Fleming, Stevens, Reinholz and Johnson with Kessel, Wheeler, Anderson, Bostrom, Frazee, Stoa. Wow, there's an upgrade in talent. So we'll see, but with a very good goalie, adequate D, and plenty of scoring firepower, I think MN will be one of the top 2 teams.
NEXT 3
Denver will be OK with Maniac in goal and decent skill throughout. They lose 2 senior D and return 4 regular D players including their strong goalies. They lose 4 of their top 8 goal scorers but return the top 2 and most of the top end of that group. They bring in some very highly touted D players and solid overall recruits.
Bucky will be good. They were good this year, but not as good as their record. They remind me of the Sioux from 2002-03. let's see, Bucky loses Berndt Bruckler and Pete (who?) Talafous and replaces them with another very solid recruiting class led by Jack Skille that Bucky HOPES will have them forget about Kessel. Doubt it. Bucky struggled to score last year and it's dangerous to rely on freshmen to help that out. Goal is a question mark for Bucky. So, since that question is not answered, I will put them in fight with bottom of the home ice group.
The Fighting Sioux will have a solid offense, and very solid goal situation. The 2 big questions are how much impact will the freshman forwards have? Will Duncan, Watkins, and Kozek be able to transfer their junior success to the WCHA? Will these more skilled players make us forget the grit and character of guys like McMahon, Genoway, Canady, Massen and Fylling? And how well will the freshmen D play? Can Jones, Chorney and Lee step in as well as Fuher, Jones, and Schneider did 4 years ago? Even if both Big Matt's come back, they're only 30-40% of the D corp on the ice. To keep from being exploited Radke and the trio of new guys need to play solidly. Assuming that they will struggle as so many freshmen D often do, I see UND fighting with the last 3 home ice teams.
2 Home Ice Wannabees
Bulldogs will be rebuilding, but solid. Out of a very large senior class they only lose a couple of contributors on the score sheet in Schwabe and Hammond. They remove some attitude issues? in Caig and Brosz (I'm trying to remember who Sandy benched in the last playoff game). They bring back 4 D who played at least 23 games last year. They bring in another huge class lead by high profile players like Mike Gergen of Shattuck and Matt Niskanen of Virginia. They should be solid, but young. The upper 5 teams in the league might be just too strong to give up home ice to the Dogs this next year. If Duluth's goalies struggle I'd suggest they watch out for Mankato, otherwise I think Duluth will be the top of the bottom half.
Mankato was a decent team last year. They bring back their top 3 scorers and most of their D. They had little to count on in goal and unless Dan Tormey or Mike Zacharias can shore that up they probably will still struggle to become a dangerous team. Forget Zacharias who will likely be a target in practice, but Tormey is the 2nd best goalie in the USHL in the regular season with decent numbers (.925% and 2.25GA). Not sure of the quality of their incoming recruits but would expect them to be solid.
Bottom 3
SCSU will get a boost from having Bobby Goepfert in goal along with some decent underclassmen throughout the lineup. They lose an unspectacular senior class except for Iannazzo who was very solid with 32 points this year. Szabo was decent but replaceable. Woog said SCSU had some decent freshmen but lacked enough speed to be very dangerous this year. I'm not sure if SCSU has too many top names coming in but Dahl has had some success finding needles in a haystack in the past and could again this year. With a promising, young D corp that now has a year of experience they will be tougher to score on with Goepfert backing them up. The key will be if they can score enough goals to dig themselves out of the bottom of the league.
Tech. Well, they lose a very important player in Murpy, but most of their team returns. I think if they get anything in goal they'll be able to outduel AA for the league bottom. They bring in Michael Teslak from the BCHL who was second there in svs % with .931 which is very solid for a league that scores a lot of goals. His GA was 2.47. Look out AA.
AA will continue their struggle. They are a very young team that struggled to score goals last year. That may continue this year. Very good goaltending (Lawson) returns. They have a very young D with more experience now. So they'll likely be tough to score on, but may find it hard to score enough goals to dig themselves out of the bottom of the league. Sound familiar?
