Our team is quite young this year. I believe 10 incoming freshman along with two transfers. They appear to be a pretty cool blend of size and skill which I think was sorely needed, especially size on the blueline. There are a couple of big questions marks, mostly on defense. Actually that is really the only big questions mark, I guess. We only have 2 returning defenders and one of them was out the second half of the year with a concussion last season. Also, Torey Krug, our captain and one of the CCHA's best defensemen opted to forego his senior year and jumped to the NHL. We brought in 2 transfers to help take some pressure off of our freshman but nobody really knows what to expect. Defense might be an absolute adventure this season, at least until our guys get their feet wet.
Our offense should be able to put up points this year. Plenty of new faces but some pretty good talent returning and not nearly as inexperienced as the defense. Seriously, this weekend is gonna be wild back there.
Goaltending should be quite good. Yanakeff is solid with plenty of experience splitting starts the last couple years. He started to take over near the end of last year.
Without having seen us play yet, it's a little harder to pin this stuff down. While Windsor isn't going to be a great indicator of how good we are, it will be useful to see the guys play a bit. Perhaps later tonight we will be able to shed some more light on our team.
But not to sandbag or anything, I am not expecting a win out there. Minny will have far too much firepower aimed at our inexperienced defense.
