What do I think?

Since the WCHA preseason polls were released on Tuesday, I've been asked what I think of the results. Well, since I participated in the Madison.com media poll, I might has well put my ballot out there.

I put the Mavericks seventh on my list but considered putting them higher based on the experience factor, which I wrote about in my column in Wednesday's Free Press. Because there are so many veterans with so many college games under their belts, I think this team has a chance to move up into the upper division. There are no superstars in that group -- although defenseman Kurt Davis was an All-WCHA pick last year and forward Kael Mouillierat easily could have been -- and the big mystery, of course, is the goaltending. By the way, I'll be tackling the goalie situation in Thursday's paper.

Anyway, here are my picks.

1. Denver

2. North Dakota

3. Wisconsin

4. Minnesota

5. St. Cloud State

6. Minnesota-Duluth

7. Minnesota State

8. Colorado College

9. Alaska-Anchorage

10. Michigan Tech

Player of the year: Jordan Schroeder, F, Minnesota

Rookie of the year: Mike Lee, G, St. Cloud State

All-WCHA first team: Forwards-Schroeder; Ryan Lasch, SCSU; Mouillierat; Defensemen-Chay Genoway, UND; Patrick Wiercioch, DU; Goalie-Marc Cheverie, DU

This is never an easy task and it will probably be rendered meaningless in about two weeks. I think Denver should be No. 1 in the conference with North Dakota 1B. From there, I think Minnesota and Wisconsin should be grouped together, followed by a mash of St. Cloud, Duluth, MSU and Colorado College. Although I do think CC is in for a tumble, you could take those four teams and pull them out of hat for your predictions. Finally, Anchorage and Tech are grouped at the bottom.