CHN Early Top 10 - Michigan Hockey at #3

Submitted by gwkrlghl on

CollegeHockeyNews just dropped their early Top 10 for 2014-2015 yesterday. Michigan features in at #3 which seems a touch high to me:

early top 10 for 2014-15
1. Minnesota
2. N. Dakota
3. Michigan
4. BC
5. Miami
6. Providence
7. Union
8. Minnesota St.
9. Colgate
10. Maine

— College Hockey News (@chnews) April 15, 2014

Surprising to me is that they have Miami all the way up at #5. They finished at 15-20-3 this year but must have a strong core coming back and/or a strong class coming in to get a bump like that.

I'm hoping with the possible 'addition by subtraction' of some players and a strong class coming in that we'll get back to our first Frozen Four since 2011. CHN seems to agree.

Edit: SBN College Hockey (formerly WesternCollegeHockeyBlog) also has their early list up but has Michigan all the way at #16. Very interesting decision to have Brown and Dartmouth as ranked teams, both of which have been nothing better than average in years and years
 

  School '13-'14 Record
1 Providence 22-11-6
2 Minnesota 28-7-6
3 North Dakota 25-14-3
4 Colgate 20-14-5
5 Miami 15-20-3
6 Boston College 28-8-4
7 Minnesota State 26-14-1
8 Boston University 10-21-4
9 Brown 11-17-3
10 Denver 20-16-6
11 St. Cloud 22-11-5
12 Union 32-6-4
13 UMass Lowell 26-11-4
14 Ferris State 29-11-3
15 Dartmouth 10-20-4

Honorable Mention: Michigan, Northeastern, Quinnipiac, Harvard, Maine

gwkrlghl

April 16th, 2014 at 12:23 PM ^

I'm almost sure he's a Miami (NTM) alum and has built that program from scratch. If he goes anywhere, I'd imagine it would be the NHL. I can't imagine him jumping to another college program unless there was internal turmoil at Miami or something like it

Lionsfan

April 16th, 2014 at 1:32 PM ^

Yup. He graduated from there in 1994, and took over as Head Coach in 1999

Plus, for a while there, it seemed like there was quite a lot of tension between the two programs. This is just my Joe Schmoe opinion, but hiring Rico would be like hiring Narduzzi for football. Makes sense from a numbers standpoint, but past that, no way

Sac Fly

April 16th, 2014 at 1:27 PM ^

I'm optimistic, but Top 5 may be too high.

We have a solid group returning, incoming talent, sophomore Nagelvoort. We should have a forecheck for the first time in recent memory.

WCHBlog

April 16th, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^

Personally, I'd split the difference between 3 and 16. The offense should be better, but they're going to be even worse on the blue line without Bennett, and that's saying something given how bad that group was last year.

Fhshockey112002

April 16th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^

I guess I'm surprised Ferris hasn't started getting a little bit more respect in these type of polls. CJ Motte returns (doubt he leaves early), which should be a safety net from losing Czarnowczan and Thompson.  They were an OT goal, in a game they dominated, away from Frozen Four appearances in two of last three seasons. 

Sac Fly

April 16th, 2014 at 5:19 PM ^

The Irish have a deep enough team to handle losing TJ Tynan, Bryan Rust and Jeff Costello.

It's a whole different story graduating 4 defensemen and their goalie.

If Robbie Russo doesn't come back next year they will only bring back two upperclassmen and two freshman with limited playing time on the blueline.

Sac Fly

April 16th, 2014 at 6:07 PM ^

No program loses more than Wisconsin.

The Badgers graduated 3 defensemen and lost McCabe to the NHL.

At forward they lose Kerdiles, Barnes, Mersch and Zengerle. One player with more than 10 goals last season comes back.