Media members who cover the WCHA are pretty smart. Their preseason WCHA projections nearly mirror mine. Denver was the near unanimous choice of everyone to win the MacNaughton Cup. The Pioneers, or Pios as Denver Post blogs refer to them, received 23 of 25 first-place votes. North Dakota and Minny split the other two.

Behind DU, the other top five in the media poll were North Dakota at No. 2, Wisconsin at No. 3, the Gophers at No. 4 and St. Cloud State at No. 5.

I had the same five in my top five but in a slightly different order: 1. DU, 2. Gophers, 3. North Dakota, 4. Wisconsin and 5. St. Cloud State.

There is no reason Minny, if Alex Kangas plays well in the nets, can’t battle the Pios for first place. The Gophers have 20 players on their roster who have been drafted by NHL teams. Eight were first- or second-round picks.

Picked Player of the Year was sophomore center Jordan Schroeder while the Rookie of the Year was goalie Mike Lee of St. Cloud State. Did someone look at my ballot? That’s who I chose.

Actually Schroeder was an obvious candidate. Lee? Not so much. There are several other top rookies coming into the league such as defenseman Nick Leddy of the Gophers. I went with Less because the Huskies have a gaping hole in the nets and Lee will get the chance to prove he can fill it.

Right now it looks as if he will mean a lot more to the success or failure of his team than Leddy.

Those who compiled the media poll tried to get one newspaper reporter and one broadcaster from all 10 WCHA cities and towns.

Those men — and one women — also picked the same all-WCHA as me, except senior Rhett Rakhshani of Denver tied for the third forward spot, so there were four forwards. I only voted for three.

The media poll results:

Team (first-place votes)  Points
1. Denver (23)               248
2. North Dakota (1)          205
3. Wisconsin                 190
4. Minnesota (1)             186
5. St. Cloud State           152
6. Minnesota-Duluth          118
7. Colorado College          101
8. Minnesota State            88
9. Alaska Anchorage           57
10. Michigan Tech             30

All-WCHA first team

Forwards: Jordan Schroeder, Minn, so; Ryan Lasch, St. Cloud State, sr.; Justin Fontaine, UMD, jr.; Rhett Rakhshani, DU, sr.

Defensemen: Patrick Wiercioch, DU, so.; Chay Genoway, ND, sr.

Goalie: Marc Cheverie, DU, jr.

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