Every college hockey coach looks for players to take the “leap” from their freshman to sophomore seasons. There are a few reasons for that: first, players should be acclimated to playing a more physical brand of hockey than they saw in junior hockey; second, the adjustment to balancing school and athletics again; and third, physical maturation necessary to play against men as old as 24 or 25 in Division I hockey.

In virtually every case Denver’s sophomore class took that step last season, and many were key cogs in a national championship. What can we expect going forward? Here is a closer look at DU’s seven juniors. Players are listed in alphabetical order.

Dylan Gambrell

Last season, Gambrell had 43 points in 38 games (1.13 ppg) and 13 goals (0.34 gpg). His output was actually down slightly from his freshman season 47 points in 41 games (1.15 ppg) and 17 goals (0.42 gpg). His 2016-17 performance indicates he was a bit more concerned with distributing the puck. As good as his all-around game was as a freshman, I would argue it improved and put him among the best on the team. His plus-25 was second best among forwards on the team (to Troy Terry). He will have to take over even more of the load on face-offs this season with the departures of Matt Marcinew and Evan Ritt. He took the second most shots on the team (127) and converted 10.2 percent of them, which was just about the team average. An NHL scout told me last season he thought Gambrell was the Pioneers’ most pro ready forward at that point. Imagine what another year at Denver could do for his game.

Blake Hillman

There was no Pioneer who statistically had worse luck than Hillman, who connected on just 1.5 percent of his shots. He took 65 shots (third among defensemen), but had just one goal and eight points to show for it. As was the case during his freshman season, he heated up down the stretch, but the difference was he became a more reliable every situation defenseman in 2016-17. His plus-10 was the lowest among the six regular defensemen, but he and partner Matt VanVoorhis often started in the defensive zone, and by anyone’s measure he was a much stronger defender than in his freshman season.

Jared Lukosevicius

The world knows who “Luko” is now after his NCAA title game hat trick. If you followed DU hockey closely, however, you’d have watched him bury eight game-winners among his 16 goals (third on the team) and 32 points (fifth on the team). His mission is to shoot, and to that end, he fired a team-high 150 shots on goal (23 more than Gambrell). He connected on 10.7 percent of his shots, which was seventh on the team and slightly above the team average. His points per game (0.74) skyrocketed from his freshman year (0.29). Given the talent around him, opponents’ focus on Gambrell, Terry and Henrik Borgstrom and his ability to find open spaces to unleash his shot, I would not be surprised at all to see him surpass 20 goals and flirt with 25. He also gets involved physically and can move around the lineup because of his skill set.

Sean Mostrom

The beloved 6-foot-3 blue liner shows up, works hard but has thus far played sparingly. That could change this season with two openings on the back end and less experience in the group overall than they’ve had for a few years. He adds a distinctly physical presence to the lineup.

Logan O’Connor

This is my darkhorse candidate for a breakout player, though the argument could be made that his 18-point season (up from 4 as a freshman) already qualifies for that. Explosive, physical and skilled, O’Connor is a threat on the penalty kill (where he scored twice) and has the skill to score in bunches. His 83 shots were seventh among forwards, which is impressive because he rarely played on the power play and often was deployed in defensive situations. He and Colin Staub should take over the title of forward security blankets for coach Jim Montgomery – they can play anywhere and they know exactly what to do wherever they’re placed.

Colin Staub

In a word, consistent. Staub plays the same well-rounded game night after night. He can score (10 goals, 20 points), clean up the garbage in front of the net as well as anyone and works the boards before often emerging with the puck. I will guarantee you his work ethic and tenacity will be held up as a standard to his younger teammates. He was a power-play contributor because of this (five goals, tied for second on the team). He’s also highly disciplined (just four minors in two seasons). When you couple this with a player whose 11.5 percent shooting percentage was fifth on the team, you have someone who can – and probably will – play on every line at some point this season and not look out of place.

Troy Terry

Even without taking into account his monumental performance at the World Junior Championships for Team USA, Terry put together an incredibly impressive season, statistically or otherwise. And he did it while taking on more defensive responsibility and displaying vastly improved strength on the puck. Terry was a force nearly every game he played. He led DU in points (46), tied Borgstrom with 22 goals and his 1.31 points per game led the roster by a wide margin and was in the top 10 nationally. He was a threat on the power play (five goals) and the penalty kill (one shortie), and he scored clutch goals (four game-winners). He did all this with the fifth-most shots on the team. Why? Because Terry had an unreal season from an accuracy standpoint, burying 22 percent of his shots on goal, more than double the team average of 10.5 percent. It might be asking a lot for a repeat performance, but consider this: had Terry shot the puck on net once more per game we’d be talking about a 32-goal season, which would have led Division I and been among the 10 best all-time at DU.

Final analysis: These seven form a significant portion of the backbone of this team. The five forwards all play important roles and along with Hillman accounted for 69 of the team’s 152 goals (45.4 percent), by far the largest amount for any class a season ago. If Hillman breaks out offensively and becomes the all-around defenseman the Chicago Blackhawks envisioned when they drafted him in 2016, it will go a long way toward helping DU overcome the graduations of Will Butcher and VanVoorhis.

Go inside the numbers with DU’s seniors

Go inside the numbers with DU’s sophomores