The University of Maine’s steady improvement in the Hockey East standings under head coach Ben Barr has been noticed by 15 members of the Hockey East Writers and Broadcasters Association who voted on the 13th annual conference preseason media poll.
The media picked the Black Bears to finish third behind defending regular season and tournament champion and NCAA Tournament runner-up Boston College and Boston University.
The coaches poll is expected to be released next week.
Boston College, which lost to Denver in the national championship game 2-0, received 14 of the 15 first-place media votes and 154 points.
Boston University, which finished second to Boston College in the regular season and lost to BC 6-2 in the tournament final and to Denver 2-1 in the Frozen Four semifinals, received the other first-place vote and earned 146 points.
UMaine, which finished third a year ago after being picked ninth in the Hockey East coaches’ preseason poll, had 125 points with Providence College (113) and UMass (110) rounding out the top five.
Northeastern was sixth (94) followed by New Hampshire (73), UConn (54), Merrimack (45), Vermont (34) and UMass Lowell (32).
UMaine sophomore winger Josh Nadeau was chosen to the league’s All-Preseason team along with Boston College forwards Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault, defenseman Eamon Powell and goalie Jacob Fowler and Boston University defenseman Tom Willander.
All of them are sophomores except Powell, who is a graduate student.
The Black Bears made the Hockey East semifinals and the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time since 2011-12. They finished at 23-12-2 overall and 14-9-1 in league play.
It was the second straight eight-win improvement.
UMaine went 15-16-5 in 2022-23 after posting a 5-17-2 record in Barr’s first season behind the bench.
UMaine lost leading scorer and All-Hockey East second team pick Bradly Nadeau, a first round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes who wound up signing with the Hurricanes after the season.
He had 19 goals and 27 assists in 37 games to finish one point ahead of his brother, Josh, who had 18 goals and 27 assists.
But they return five of the next six point-producers and nine of the top 11.
The entire defense corps is back as is sophomore goalie Albin Boija, who won the starting job from senior and former All-Hockey East second team pick Victor Ostman and posted the nation’s third-best goals-against average (2,01).
And the Black Bears have added 10 newcomers including Division 1 transfers Ross Mitton from Colgate, Charlie Russell (Clarkson), Owen Fowler (UMass Lowell), Taylor Makar (UMass) and Frank Djurasevic.
Mitton, Russell, Fowler and Makar are forwards and Djurasevic is a defenseman who was a regular as a freshman on the Merrimack blue line last season.
Mitton was Colgate’s leading scorer.
“(Polls) don’t mean anything. The only thing that means anything is who is holding the trophy at the end of the year and that is the goal this year,” said Barr, now in his fourth season at UMaine. “Every team in our league is great and, one through 11, I don’t think there is much difference.”
Barr pointed to the Boston teams as challenging opponents.
“Obviously, everyone knows those top two teams have an unbelievable amount of talent. It’s going to be incumbent upon the rest of the league to find a way to neutralize that. That’s what we’re trying to do and what everyone else is trying to do,” he added.
He feels this year’s team is the deepest one he has had at UMaine.
“Top to bottom, we’re a very deep team,” said Barr. “But we can’t stay the same. We need everybody to get five to 10 percent better (than last year). And then you have something.”
He was pleased that Josh Nadeau was selected to the All-Preseason team.
In addition to being the team’s No. 2 scorer, he led the Black Bears in power play goals with eight and in game-winning goals with five.
“He deserves it. He is an outstanding player. It’s going to be a good growth year for him, just to take that next step as a player and become a little more of a leader,” said Barr. “He is a special player.”
UMaine opens the season against American International College (Mass.) from Atlantic Hockey at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5 at Alfond Arena in Orono.
