WCHA season preview: Look to Minnesota →

The top three teams in the league had significant departures due to graduation and are missing players this season who are centralized with Team USA and Canada prior to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota-Duluth all have a lot of questions they’ll need to answer in order to be successful. Each program has plenty of young talent, but it will be how quickly each adapts that will decide how the season plays out. Normally, I’d go with last year’s winner as the preseason number one, but in this case, I have to give the nod to Minnesota because while they have a lot of unknowns, they have solid Sidney Peters in net. Wisconsin has to replace Patty Kazmaier Award winner Ann-Renée Desbiens, and that will be no easy feat.