Will the payoff at the end of the 2022-23 NCAA hockey season be a ten-spot for Denver?

After all, a record 10th national championship was the stated goal by coach David Carle in the aftermath of the ninth one, won at Boston back in April.

Plenty has changed since then, and I’ve covered the personnel side of it in previous installments of MagnessMayhem.com’s season preview (roster breakdown, emerging players and impact players). Now it’s time to look at the big picture.

What will it take for the Pioneers to repeat? Here are three keys:

First, DU will have to replace a lot of scoring

The Pioneers lost their top four scorers and six of their top 10 to graduation and pro signings. Factor in two defensemen leaving via the transfer portal and to sign in Europe, and DU lost 61 percent of its goal scoring and 52 percent of its points production.

No matter how talented this season’s freshmen / transfer group is (very), they face a tall order because even on its down nights, DU was a threat to break a game open due to its offensive depth and firepower.

“You work on it,” Carle said. “The kids coming in are really good players. We need some people internally to take on more minutes, take on bigger roles. And we need the new guys to assimilate themselves quickly into how we play and into college hockey quickly.”

Early returns on that front are positive.

“The new guys are all super mature,” assistant captain Kyle Mayhew said. “They’re all really strong, probably the strongest freshman group I’ve seen in the gym. They crushed our 7-mile bike test. They all picked our systems up really quickly.

“This is probably the fastest team I’ve been on in my time here. The freshmen can absolutely fly. … They give me a lot of the same vibes that the sophomores did last year. They’re already making a huge impact.”

Still, getting up to speed in college hockey, or any new level of hockey, can be a process. As good as DU’s freshman class was last season (four NCHC all-rookie team picks plus a few other key contributors and a future starting goalie), it took some of the players a while to really find their stride.

“It’s working on details like our puck protection, working on our puck support, getting pucks off the wall in the offensive zone and one-timing pucks,” Carle said. “Learning all of those ins and outs, being able to put pucks on the net quickly from dangerous areas. It’s just repetition and work. We have a real hungry group.”

Second, DU must be OK with winning ugly

The Pioneers skill level and speed is obvious, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’ll score 4.27 goals per game again. High-scoring hockey is fun for everyone but the masked men, but it would be a surprise if Denver scored at that clip again, particularly in NCHC play.

Instead, it should rely on its two biggest strengths – deep and veteran-laden groups on defense and in goal. That could mean a lot of 2-1 and 3-2 games.

“The veterans are going to bring a lot,” said forward Carter Mazur, who along with defenseman Mike Benning are the leading returning scorers (38 points). “That was a massive part of why we won last year. We didn’t allow that many goals (2.3 per game). That’s a big part of hockey now – defense first, keep the puck and hopefully the offense will come.”

This starts with senior goaltender Magnus Chrona, whose decision not to sign a pro contract in the offseason was good news, very good news.

“You want to build from the new out,” Carle said. “Every year is different. This year’s group is veteran in goal and on the back end, and I think that’s a great foundation to build from. There’s no doubt about it, that group of people needs to be great for us early on while the forward group builds chemistry.

“Having Magnus back there, the way he ended last year was exceptional. … We’re real fortunate he’s back. He can be a real leader for us and be a steadying influence on the team.”

Mayhew, who along with senior captain Justin Lee, Benning and sophomores Sean Behrens and Shai Buium will form the backbone of the blue line, said Chrona’s impact can’t be understated, and if anything he might be better this season.

“This is the most confidence I’ve seen in him,” Mayhew said. “When I went home (over the summer), everyone asked me about the (NCAA final), and I said, ‘If Magnus didn’t keep us in it (at a 1-0 deficit), we would have lost. He’s still riding that.

“I think he knows he’s one of the top goaltenders in the country. Before, there might have been a little self-doubt, but now he’s on top of the world.”

Third, DU must embrace having a target on its back

Do you think programs like recent titlists UMass, Providence, Minnesota Duluth or North Dakota will feel sorry that the Pioneers lost six of their top nine forwards?

Doubtful.

If anything, those teams – and every other one on DU’s schedule – will relish the thought of knocking off the defending champs, who also were either blessed or cursed with a preseason No. 1 ranking.

“Some of our experience and knowledge about what it took to get there and then win that national championship is going to be big,” Lee said. “We know you can never take a day off. We learned that the hard way at the start of last season, and there are enough of us who remember how that felt.”

There likely will be a lot of lineup experimentation in the season’s opening months. Players will have to check their egos and play down further in the lineup than they might believe they should.

However, Carle and assistants Tavis MacMillan and Dallas Ferguson and the team’s leaders – Lee, Mayhew, Mazur and junior center McKade Webster – have emphasized the sort of buy-in that turned out to be a major factor in last season’s run.

One of the key newcomers, grad transfer Casey Dornbach, said he has been blow away by Denver’s culture.

“This program is something special. It’s the people first and foremost,” said the former Harvard captain. “It’s the opportunity to be around a lot of great people and great players who really strive for being their best and for greatness. This program expects championships, and the players put in the work to give ourselves the best opportunity to do that.

“That’s the kind of people I wanted to align with. Ever since I’ve been here I’ve been included and meshed well and formed some bonds already. It’s been a great fit, and I can see why they’ve been so successful.”

©First Line Editorial 2022