In my opinion, as far as next year goes, I don't actually think Maine will fall off all that much. Obviously losing Swayman hurts bad, but I believe that they will have two solid DI goalies next season. Neither of them individually will match up to Swayman, of course, but I don't think goaltending will become a weakness for Maine. Convincing Dohrety or Tralmaks to stay will be the most important thing, as keeping one of them I think will allow the offense to stay close to where it stands, as Breen looks like a top prospect out of USHL and Villeneuve can add goal scoring touch, based on his stats. The defense stands to lose nobody and add some talent like Gould, so it stands to at the very least be the same or improve. I don't think Maine's performance will dip that much next year, and they'll still be a solid team.
The problem for Maine is that nearly every other team in Hockey East stands to improve next year. BC is retaining Newhook and Knight and will bring in a strong class, as always. UMass has established themselves as a power. The safe bet would be on Leaman and Providence rebounding next year, same goes for Northeastern who's bringing in a strong class. Bazin and his RiverHawks will always hang around and be competitive. Even BU, who seems to be one of the teams closer to Maine's position, is bringing a Knight-tier goalie next year, which was their biggest weakness this year. And at the bottom of the conference, Merrimack had a top-10 recruiting class this past year and those players will keep gaining experience and improve, they lost a lot of close games. UNH is bringing in a big class this year with some decent pieces. And even Vermont might be better with the boost of morale from a new coach.
So the bottom line, in my opinion, is that in a vaccum, Maine will probably only be slightly worse next year than this year. The problem is gonna end up being that all the teams around them improved and surpassed them.
!!
