St. Cloud State is a little low, but Denver being placed after Duluth and
North Dakota? Denver loses a few people, but they do have some good
talent returning, good proven talent.. North Dakota has Nick Naumenko,
Teeder Wynne is good, but I highly doubt he'll have a year like last year.
 
Minnesota has better offense than many people think. Bonin will be there,
Kraft will be there.. Nick CHecco improves every year so he's ready to
have a good year. Plus newcomers like Wyatt SMith, Reggie Berg, Mike
Anderson and Erik Rasmussen should add some punch.
 
As for St. Cloud State, Matt Cullen and Mark Parrish are their best 2
newcomers.. They have other good freshman coming in, but none that will
have the impact of Cullen.  Parrish had a very good Olympic Festival as well.
 
Here are my picks:
 
1. Colorado College
2. Minnesota
3. Wisconsin
4. Denver
5. Minnesota-Duluth
6. St. Cloud State
7. North Dakota
8. Northern Michigan
9. Michigan Tech
10. Anchorage
 
The Minnesota-CC race should be very close.. These two face off in just 2
weeks.
I think Wisconsin and Denver will have some fun battling for 3rd and 4th,
while 5-7 could go to any of those 3 teams (UMD, SCSU, UND). Duluth has
the best shot at 5th, but St. Cloud will have to hope their goalie plays
as well and better than last year and their freshman play to their potential.
 
Ryan Bowman
University of Minnesota
 
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