Does Denver, recently revealed as the No. 2-ranked team entering the 2019-20 season, have indispensable players?

It depends on whom you ask.

If it’s senior assistant captain Michael Davies the answer isn’t so simple.

“I wouldn’t say there is anybody who stands out,” the defenseman said. “Everyone has a role on our team that means something … that’s why we’re a special team and a special program.

“Obviously people talk about the guys who score goals and play big minutes, if you ask me, everybody is indispensable, even the guys who don’t play. They mean a lot to our team whether it’s because they’re a locker room guy or they work hard in practice and make guys better every day.”

It’s hard to argue with one of the four Pioneers who have experienced winning an NCAA championship, but I’d like to offer a few names that I think are essential to Denver’s pursuit of its ninth title.

2019-20 Season Preview

Part 1 – Denver’s roster by the numbers

Part 2 – Denver’s indispensable players

Part 3 – The emerging players

Part 4 – Taking the show on the road

Also: Podcast with alumni Josiah Didier and Tariq Hammond

 

Goaltender Devin Cooley

Last year, the Pioneers entered the season with virtually no experience in net. Cooley, who had played 20 minutes as a freshman, led them to a 7-3-1 start while freshman Filip Larsson healed from a groin muscle surgery. The tag team then led DU to its Frozen Four run. Larsson took over the net in the postseason, but he also signed with the Detroit Red Wings in April.

Which brings us back to Cooley, who is primed to be the undisputed No. 1 again even though another Swedish-born, NHL-drafted goalie (freshman Magnus Chrona) is waiting in the wings and there is a veteran backup in sophomore Michael Corson.

Cooley, though, has to be considered the man, after going 11-6-4 with four shutouts and numbers of .934 and 1.85 – the latter two among the best in school history.

“Cooley really proved himself last year that he’s a No. 1 goalie,” assistant captain Tyson McLellan said. “We had two of them last year. Everyone in the room is confident in him. The other two goalies we have are really good, too. We have to see how it all plays out.”

NHL teams took note. Several scouts told me last season that anytime you have a 6-foot-5 goaltender with Cooley’s athletic ability, he will draw heavy interest. And that he did this summer when both Toronto and Chicago had him in to their prospect camps.

Defenseman Ian Mitchell

Not to be captain obvious here, but Mitchell is a supreme driver of DU’s offense. And for a team that struggled to score goals at times last season (three or more just seven times in the final 20 games), his presence on the blue line is crucial.

So it was no small matter when the captain in waiting decided to forego signing with the Chicago Blackhawks, who picked him in the second round in the 2017 Entry Draft. Not only does Mitchell have 57 points in his first two seasons (second only to senior forward Liam Finlay among returning players), but his people skills go above and beyond hockey’s already high standards.

“(His return) was big for two reasons,” coach David Carle said. “The first is, obviously, the impact he can make on the ice with his dynamic play.

“Two, and arguably more important, is the person he is in the locker room and the leader he’s going to be for our team. How much value he adds in that regard with his selflessness, and his care for his teammates and his respect for his teammates.”

One of Denver’s biggest issues last season was its power play, and Mitchell is its brightest light with a man up. He will be crucial to the Pioneers improving upon their 15.1 percent success rate (tied for 47th out of 60 D-I teams). He also had three game-winning goals.

Forward Cole Guttman

There are many contenders for the third spot, but I think Guttman brings a lot of what Denver is going to need – a nose for the net. The graduation of Jarid Lukosevicius takes a team-high 19 goals and seven game-winners out the door. Luko also had four first goals, second only to Guttman, who had five.

Guttman’s 14 goals were just two fewer than Finlay’s. The Tampa Bay Lightning pick found a lot of mojo with fellow freshman Emilio Pettersen (30 points, second to Finlay’s 36) and Lukosevicius. Pettersen’s injury in the NCAA quarterfinal hurt DU significantly, but Guttman responded by coming up huge in the semifinal against UMass, scoring twice in the third period to tie the score.

Also bear in mind that Guttman accomplished this after coming off major hip surgery in 2018, an event that ended his junior career early. It should be fun to watch what he can do now that he’s fully recovered and has had his best summer of training since before he was drafted in 2016.

NEXT: DU’s emerging players

©First Line Editorial 2019