The voters have spoken, and in at least the preseason, we have a slightly split decision.

This week’s announcements by the NCHC and USCHO.com indicate those who cover the league and college hockey expect Denver to fall a bit from its lofty perch of the past three seasons.

The USCHO.com preseason poll put the Pioneers at No. 9, but they were the third NCHC team – behind No. 1 Minnesota Duluth and No. 6 St. Cloud State. Of course this poll also put the previous season’s final four teams as its top four teams.

Fellow NCHC member North Dakota, which did not make the NCAA Tournament last season, is No. 11 and Western Michigan, which DU opens its NCHC schedule against during the first weekend in November, checks in at No. 19. Colorado College and Omaha also received votes.

The NCHC media poll, meanwhile, has the Pioneers in fifth place – behind UMD, St. Cloud, NoDak and Western, but ahead of CC, Omaha and Miami. DU also received one first-place vote in that poll.

UMD, as the reigning national champion and one that returns much of its title team, justifiably is receiving a lot of love. Ditto St. Cloud, which has a veteran team that should be every bit as good as last year’s Penrose Cup winners, if not better.

After that is where it gets tricky. Could Denver finish ahead of either of those schools? It’s possible, but things would have to come together much quicker than usual for a team that has a rookie coach and needs to replace what I feel are no fewer than seven of its top 10 players from a season ago.

North Dakota graduated its stalwart goaltender then watched its top defenseman and forward sign with NHL teams off a roster that wasn’t its most talented in recent years to begin with.

Western Michigan, which boasts some very good top-end talent and a solid goaltender, and CC, which I think will be deeper and improved again, might be the two programs that have more to say about how things shake out in spots 3-6.

It’s fun to speculate about, but we should start getting some answers in little more than a month from now.

Off-ice transactions

Belated congratulations are in order for Kelsey Bigham on her hiring as the Pioneers’ director of hockey operations, replacing the departed Joe Howe, earlier this month. Bigham, just 22, was the sports program assistant, overseeing finances, six sports – including hockey – at DU last school year. She is just the third active female director of hockey operations at Division I’s 60 men’s programs. … With Howe’s exit to take an assistant coaching job at Alaska Fairbanks, the Pioneers added former NHL goaltender Ben Scrivens as a team manager. Scrivens, who is studying for a masters degree at DU, played for four NHL teams over five seasons. He played collegiately at Cornell.

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