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.

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The Gophers are rated No. 6 in the USA Today/USA Hockey preseason men’s hockey poll.

Miami (Ohio), which lost in the NCAA title game last season to Boston University, is the top-rated team followed by Denver and BU.

The Gophers return 10 of their top 11 scorers from the 2008-09 season and 20 letterwinners.  Minnesota was 17-13-7 a year ago. The Gophers took fifth place in the WCHA but lost their first game in the Final Five and just missed advancing to the NCAA tournament.

Minnesota opens the season at No. 8 North Dakota on Oct. 16-17 and then faces Denver at home the next weekend.

The Gophers’ first practice is Saturday. The next day Minnesota faces British Columbia at 4 p.m. at Mariucci Arena in an exhibition game.

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College Hockey News has its preseason top 10 out. Denver is rated No. 1. The only other WCHA team on the list is Minnesota at No. 6.

The top 10:

1. Denver

2. Miami (Ohio)

3. Boston Univ.

4. Cornell

5. Michigan

6. Minnesota

7. Princeton

8. Notre Dame

9. Mass.-Lowell

10. Yale

CHN comments on the Gophers:

6. Minnesota: A usual NCAA postseason staple, the Gophers fell short of expectations last season, but if their late-season run showed anything, it was that they’d be back with a vengeance in 2009-10.

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The Western College Hockey blog recently make predictions on WCHA award winners. 

Gophers sophomore center Jordan Schroeder was WCH’s choice for Player of the Year. The complete list: 

2009-10 WCHA

Player of the Year: Jordan Schroeder, Minnesota

Goalie of the Year: Brad Eidsness, North Dakota

Rookie of the Year: Dylan Olsen, Minnesota Duluth

Defenseman of the Year: Chay Genoway, North Dakota

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The Western College Hockey blog has come out with its preseason WCHA predictions.

The Gophers are picked to finish fourth. The complete list:

 1. North Dakota

2. Denver

3. Wisconsin

4. Minnesota

5. Minnesota-Duluth

6. St. Cloud

7. Colorado College

8. Minnesota State

9. Alaska-Anchorage

10. Michigan Tech

So what’s the rationale for the U being fourth. Here is what the WCH says:

4. Minnesota

Last year I picked Minnesota to finish pretty high in the league, hedging that they’d been too good too long for the previous season to be anything other than a fluke. But after another down year by their standards, maybe there’s something more to it.

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Gophers men’s hockey coaches were on the ice for the first time on Tuesday with their players.

Under NCAA rules, coaches can start working with their players three weeks before regular preseason workouts begin. But they can only be on the ice  for one-hour two times per week.

Tony Lucia and Ryan Flynn, the team co-captains, also continue to lead captains’ practices four, five times a week. 

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Last week FSN announced it would carry 28 Gophers men’s hockey games this season.

Today, the Big Ten Network announced it will carry three more games.

All are home games on Friday nights — Saturday is probably reserved for football, football, football.

 BTN will air the Gophers against North Dakota on Jan. 15, vs. Colorado College on Feb. 19, both at Mariucci, and vs. Wisconsin on Mar. 5 at Target Center.

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Of the 26 players on the Gophers’  2009-10 roster, 20 have been taken in the past five NHL entry drafts.

So some NHL team at one time thought each of those 20 players had pro potential.  One hockey blog recently stated that was a record for a college team.

Not sure how to check that. It certainly seems like a lot. For example Denver, almost everybody’s WCHA favorite this season, has a school-record 13 NHL draftees on its roster.

Many of the Gophers’ 20 drafted players were taken early.

There are four first-rounders: fr. D Nick Leddy, jr. F Patrick White, so. C Jordan Schroeder and sr. D David Fischer.

There are four second-rounders, too:

so. D Aaron Ness, jr. F Mike Hoeffel, so. F Nico Sacchetti and fr. F Zach Budish. 

The San Jose Sharks are probably watching the Gophers the most. They have draft rights to three players:

Seniors Tony Lucia and Jay Barriball and White, whose rights the Sharks acquired from Vancouver in a trade this summer.

FSN will carry 28 of the Gophers’ 36 hockey games this season, including the first 13.

The Big Ten Network, which hasn’t announced its hockey schedule, is expected to carry a few others, too. It did four games last season.

Here are the eight games not on FSN:

Nov. 28, at Michigan State

Dec. 11-12, at Michigan Tech

Jan. 15, North Dakota

Jan. 29-30, at Alaska Anchorage

Feb. 19, Colorado College

March 5, Wisconsin at Target Center

Got to think the Big Ten network will carry several of those Friday games at Mariucci not at FSN, like the North Dakota and Colorado College games and the Wisconsin game at Target Center.

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The Western College Hockey blog recently rated the top freshmen coming into the CCHA and WCHA.

Three young Gophers were among the top 10.

Defenseman Nick Leddy of Eden Prairie was rated No. 4. WCH wondered if he would get a lot of ice time with all the veteran defensmen the Gophers have. Don’t think that will be a problem. A D-man that can move the puck and has the skating skills Leddy have will get his ice time.

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