Thanks to free transfers hockey has lost its spot way ahead of the peleton when it comes to offseason roster chaos, but there's still a point every summer where you can squint and see what next year's team is going to look like. We've mostly reached this point, give or take a post-draft defection. Let's see what we can see.

Freshmen! The hockey equivalent of phonebooks dropped this week, as the program announced a five-man recruiting class:

• D Luke Hughes, the third and final Hughes brother. Bigger than Quinn, has the Hughes skating, widely expected to be a top ten pick in the upcoming draft.
• D Ethan Edwards, a fourth-round draft pick last year who moved from the AJHL to the USHL, where he put up a 6-21-27 line in 51 games. Not that big, good skater, puck mover.
• F Mackie Samoskevich, a skilled forward who put up a PPG (13-24-47 in 44 games) with Chicago of the USHL. Most draft experts have him slotting in towards the end of the first round of this year's draft.
• F Dylan Duke, another guy who may go in the late first round and will be off the board by the end of the second. Duke is more of a 200-foot energy guy who will win board battles than a puck wizard. Productive: 49 points in 50 games with the U18s.
• F Mark Estapa, who is undrafted in his D+1 year. Estapa's point production took a big step forward in his second USHL season (he went from 5 to 31 points in 45 games) but he still projects as a bottom six forward as long as Michigan is bringing in this level of talent.

One player who may have joined the class but is apparently deferring is D Luca Fantilli. Michigan's still going to be overloaded on D even without him. If Owen Power does return Michigan loses only Cam York from last year's D corps and adds two draft picks, so Fantilli was likely to be a healthy scratch for the season. He'll go back to the Steel and play with his brother Adam, who Michigan hopes to add for next year.

[After THE JUMP: COVID shirts and potential departures.]

Also here's a nice catch by Yost Built about the backup goalie situation:

On the Mich Hockey Facebook post about the incoming class there is a comment that reads "Where's the Alec Calvaruso announcement?"

He is a goalie who has played at RPI & Colorado College, & there is an Alec Calvaruso in the Umich Directory.

From Livonia, played at Cath Central

— Yost Built (@YostBuilt) June 28, 2021

Calvaruso has just 15 games of college experience but took a USHL year a couple of years ago in which he put up an .890 save percentage in 31 games. I'd imagine Portillo gets every game next year but Michigan does need a backup.

COVID Lazarus guys! Hockey also announced COVID-shirt returns for two players: Luke Morgan and Mike Pastujov. Both have been 10-points-per-year depth guys for the last few years and should remain around that in their fifth years. Both have taken turns on scoring lines and are likely to get paired with some high-end talent if only because you can't throw a rock at this roster without hitting a first-round pick. They'll provide the proverbial sandpaper.

Exits! Cam York signed with the Flyers. Strauss Mann announced that he would depart and start a pro career, but he has not yet signed. I don't think that means there's any chance he'd come back. He's just looking for the best UFA opportunity; it takes longer when you're negotiating with 31 teams instead of one.

It seems likely that Michigan will get returns from guys like Brendan Brisson, Johnny Beecher, and Thomas Bordeleau. Guys usually sign right away if they're going to sign because then they can get in the tail end of the professional season. York played in 11 games after he signed, three of them at the NHL level. Michigan's been blindsided by late summer departures before and will be again, of course. I wouldn't expect a mass exodus.

Meanwhile I'll believe that this draft class gets through the summer without at least one defection, but with Owen Power publicly declaring he's leaning towards school it's really down to Matt Beniers and Kent Johnson—incoming freshmen do get poached occasionally but Hughes is a Hughes and I'd imagine he matriculates. Beniers has the kind of mature 200-foot game that could see him signed immediately. Johnson seems less likely despite his outrageous offensive skill.

Lines? Perhaps an exercise in futility, but one man's WAG at what lines might look like. I tried to put a sandpaper guy on each line; Beecher is a center by trade but someone's got to move to wing. Forwards:

1. Beecher-Bordeleau-Johnson
2. Brisson-Beniers-Duke
3. Ciccolini-Pastujov-Samoskevich
4. Morgan-Van Whye-Moyle

(Also: Lambert, Lapointe, Granowicz, Estapa)

D:

1. Power-Blankenburg
2. Hughes-Truscott
3. Edwards-Summers

(Also: Holtz, Pehrson, Gingell, Keranen) The D is complicated by an overabundance of left shots. Blankenburg, Pehrson, and Holtz are the only right shots and Holtz didn't play a game his freshman year.