And your captains are ...

The Mavericks named their captains on Friday and they are:

C-Geoff Irwin, senior forward

A-Kael Mouillierat, senior forward

A-Channing Boe, junior defenseman

A little trivia: Irwin (12 goals, 16 assists) and Mouillierat (17, 13) are MSU's top two returning forwards in the points department. ... The are also the current team leaders in career points (Mouillierat has 67, Irwin has 60) ... Only fellow senior Zach Harrison has played in more career games (113, Irwin and Mouillierat each have played in 106) ... Irwin hails from Victoria, British Columbia. The last time a Maverick from Canada wore the 'C' was in 2006-07 when Chad Brownlee shared it with Travis Morin (FIXED).

Preseason boot camp

Free Press higher ed reporter Robb Murray had this story in today's paper about the Mavericks' use of a Minnesota State ROTC program designed for team building and leadership training.

The ROTC offers it to many groups on campus, but the Mavericks were one of the first to try the full program. It included a day of paintball, a rappelling session and a leadership reaction course.

The team was using the experience, along with its preseason practices and workouts, to determine who will be this season's captains. With the season officially starting on Saturday with a first practice/exhibition game, we should find out who those players are very soon.

MSU women picked seventh

The WCHA women's preseason coaches poll was released today, and Minnesota State was picked to finish seventh in the eight-team league. This seems a little surprising for coach Eric Means' new team, as it graduated just one player -- although that player just happened to be Maggie Fisher, the school's all-time leading scorer -- from a team that finished in a tie for fifth place and made an impressive playoff push. I also think that MSU has a chance to make some hay as there will be more parity in the league this year with several teams missing Olympians. No matter, here are the results:

WCHA Coaches Pre-Season Poll

1. Wisconsin (6 first place votes) 48 points

2. Minnesota (2) 43

3. Minnesota Duluth 38

4. St. Cloud State 29

5. Ohio State 23

6. North Dakota 20

7. Minnesota State 16

8. Bemidji State 7

(Coaches could not vote for their own teams in poll and points were awarded on a 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 system)

Player of year: Brooke Ammerman, Wisconsin (5 votes); Natalie Spooner, Ohio State (2); Saara Tuominen, Minnesota Duluth (1)

Rookie of year: Brianna Decker, Wisconsin (6 votes); Hokey Langan, Ohio State (1); Jennifer Hars, Minnesota Duluth (1)

Looking ahead ...

OK, so it's time to really start honing in on this coming hockey, but there is news on the recruiting front as the Mavericks recently got a commitment from Chase Grant of the Fargo Force.

That makes three forwards on the Force roster who will be coming to MSU next season, the others being Matt Leitner and Mankato native Corey Leivermann. Grant is an Oklahoma City native (like former Mavs captain Mick Berge and another 2010 freshman, Josh Berge (Mick's brother). Listed at 5-11, 195 pounds, Grant had 10 goals, 18 assists and 58 penalty minutes in 57 games last season.

Minnesota State has six commitments for 2010-11 and beyond, including the Force trio, Berge, forward Zach Lehrke and defensemen Danny Heath and Zach Palmquist.

Means era about to begin

The MSU women's hockey team will have its first official practice of the season on Saturday morning, but new coach Eric Means has been working nonstop since getting hired in May, recruiting, transitioning from men's hockey to women's hockey and getting his first team ready for the upcoming season.

Here's today's Free Press story on Means and the upcoming season.

Means has expressed the desire to put a more competitive team on the ice, not only one that competes hard in games but in practice. Specifically, he talked about speed, hard work and getting after loose pucks. Sounds a lot like the type of teams he tried to help build down the hall with the MSU men's program.

Preseason pondering

Starting today, men's hockey coaches and players could be on the ice together with pucks for two hours a week until practice officially begins on Oct. 3. Minnesota State was indeed out there today, and they'll have to be ready for that start date, as they will play an exhibition game that night at the Verizon Wireless Center (boy, I'm going to have to get used to writing that).

People have hockey on the mind, as there has been at least one WCHA preseason prediction put together as well as some preseason awards (link fixed).

I've been asked to participate in a preseason media poll, and my picks are due next week.

What do you all think? How do you think the WCHA season will shake out? Where will MSU finish? Who are the players to watch? Let's hear from you.

Zacharias, Tormey sign

Ex-Minnesota State hockey goalies Mike Zacharias and Dan Tormey signed pro contracts with ECHL teams.

Zacharias signed with the Ontario (Calif.) Reign, and Tormey signed with the Toledo Walleye, a new team in the ECHL.

Ontario is an affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, while Toledo has an affiliation with the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks.