Losing 40 percent of the team's scoring to graduation and other attritional circumstances is nothing new for Colorado College. Like many of their colleagues nationwide, Scott Owens and his staff face that challenge on an almost yearly basis. They simply reload with reinforcements, look for returning veterans to step up to the plate, and move on.

It's all part of the cycle.  

So, when Owens sees names such as Jaden Schwartz, Gabe Guentzel and Nick Dineen missing from CC's 2012-13 roster, he looks at the situation more as an opportunity than a cause for concern.

“It's going to be a good mix of seniors all the way through to the freshmen, and we're probably going to play the younger guys more,” said Owens, who heads into his 14th season at the helm just one shy of 300 career victories. “We did that two years ago, and last season we just ended up going with a bit more of an older lineup. This year I think we'll give our newcomers, along with some of those sophomores who didn't get to play a lot their first year, more of a chance. You might see a couple of the freshmen struggle early on, but by Christmas they're going to be full-fledged veterans.”   

The incoming class of six, which particpate in its first official captains' practices this week, features four forwards. The Tigers plucked three of them – Cody Bradley (Dubuque Fighting Saints), Jared Hanson (Lincoln Stars) and Peter Maric (Green Bay Gamblers) – from top-tier USHL teams. The fourth – Hunter Fejes from Shattuck St. Mary's prep school in Minnesota – was a sixth-round draft pick of the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes in June.

At the blue line, Russell Finch, at 6-feet, 205 pounds, and Michael King, at 6-4, 230, add significant muscle and size to a defensive corps led by seniors Mike Boivin and Joe Marciano. FInch is a two-year veteran of the North American Hockey League (Fairbanks Ice Dogs and St. Louis Bandits), while King has labored at the Junior A level in both Alberta (Lloydminster Bobcats) and British Columbia (Westside Warriors). 

“Every one of these kids comes from a winning program,” Owens said. “So there are those nuances, some of those intangibles, that come with that. I think Cody Bradley has a chance to be a very good, skilled player. Jared Hanson had a big-time season at Lincoln last year. Hunter Fejes is a young bull who's got a chance to play. Maric is more of a role player who just won a championship with Green Bay. The two defensemen, Finch and King, have the potential to contribute as well.”

The group joins 20 returning players who, for the most part, will need to assume new roles in the absence of key personnel from last season. The most noticeable among the missing will be 2011-12 All-American Schwartz, who led the team in scoring as a freshman (17g,30a) and sophomore (15g26a)?before signing a contract with the St. Louis Blues last March.

But his brother, Rylan, is back after leading Colorado College with 23 tallies as a junior. The older Schwartz, who has amassed 106 career points (39g,67a) while factoring in on the game-winning goal in 24 of CC's 60 victories the last three years, joins classmates Andrew Hamburg, William Rapuzzi and Scott Winkler as the team's most experienced offensive threats up front. The latter three combined for 48 points (14g,34a) in '11-12 and are hoping to emerge as more dominant forces.

Slowed by off-season hip surgery earlier, Hamburg finished strong with four tallies in the final month. Rapuzzi, who will serve as team captain, will try to regain the scoring touch that helped him click 21 times his first two campaigns before slipping to just three tallies as a junior. Winkler, a third-round draft pick of the Dallas Stars in 2009, has the potential to build on the 24 points (7g,17a) he put up during his junior season despite a fracture in his hand that severely hindered his ability to shoot for the last seven weeks of the 2011-12 campaign.

In addition to the early departure of Jaden Schwartz, along with 2012 graduates Dineen (14g,12a), Daid Civitarese (8g,2a) and Tim Hall (5g,3a), CC also will remain without the services of left wing Dakota Eveland (3g,5a) in 2012-13. Eveland, now a junior, underwent neck surgery in March after an injury sidelined him for the final 13 games of his recent sophomore season.

Four of his classmates – Jeff Collett, Alexander Krushelnyski, Michael Morin and Archie Skalbeck – will compete for spots on the team's top four lines with the four seniors, while sophomores Jordan DiGiando, Charlie Taft and Scott Wamsganz battle with the group of newcomers for a chance to  contribute to the offensive attack.

“It could be across the board,” said Owens, “in terms of who's going to contribute and help make up the slack.”

Krushelnyski enjoyed somewhat of a breakout season in '11-12, compiling 20 points (10g,10a) in 36 games, while Collett chipped in with 10 (5g,5a). After lighting the lamp nine times as a rookie in 2010-11, Skalbeck slumped to a single goal in 31 outings as a sophomore. And, if Morin can stay healthy, he should see an increase in ice time after appearing in only 15 games his first two years as a Tiger.    

Of the four returning juniors, Owens has the highest hopes for Krushelnyski, whose penalty-shot goal in overtime early last December ultimately set the stage for CC to reclaim the Gold Pan in its rivalry with  the University of Denver.

“He had a really good year,” the coach said. “A lot of his goals were big goals, so you tend to remember them, but I'd like to see him be a 30-point guy next year – maybe something along the lines of 13 goals and 18 assists. He's going to be given that opportunity.”
 
Inside the blue line, the most conspicuous absentee will Guentzel, a second-team All-WCHA selection whose 26 points (4g,22a) topped the team's “D” corp. Arthur Bidwill, who made 15 of his 20 appearances last season from mid-January on, and Ted Behrend, who played in only three games last season, also graduated, passing the torch to Boivin, Marciano and junior Eamonn McDermott for new leadership.  

While Guentzel typically played between 25 and 27 minutes a game, does not anticipate depending on any one of those three to follow suit. He does have expectations from them, however.

“I'm not sure we're going to have anybody who plays those kind of minutes,” he said. “Ideally, we want to spread the minutes out more evenly for everybody. I do think that Marciano and Boivin are going to play very key roles as senior defensemen – Boivin a little more offensively, and hopefully, Joe can regain a little more of his form from his sophomore year, when he was a really, really strong defending defenseman.”

McDermott, who collected 14 points (2g,12a) in 44 outings as a freshman in 2010-11, saw his whose offensive contribution slip to 10 (2g,8a) last season when he missed nine of CC's 36 games due to an injury. He joins seniors Marciano and Rylan Schwartz as alternate captains in 2012-13.

Boivin established himself as a bona fide offensive threat in '11-12, scoring eight goals and nearly doubling his points total of the previous two years combined. Twenty-one (6g,15a) of his 25 points came in league play, ranking him seventh among all WCHA defensemen, ahead of teammate Guentzel. Rounding out the eight-man crew protecting goaltenders Joe Howe, Josh Thorimbert and Courtney Lockwood this season, in addition to the two freshmen, are sophomores Aaron Harstad, Peter Stoykewych and Ian Young. Harstad logged six assists in 29 games as a rookie, while Stoykewych and Young recorded three each in 26 and 10 appearances, respectively.  
 
“Harstad and Stoykewych played a lot of minutes and I think they showed pretty good improvement,” Owens said of the two Winnipeg Jets draftees. “Harstad ended up playing with a lot of confidence toward the end, and I thought he had a really good freshman year. Peter ended up not getting as many minutes at the end of the year because Bidwill was playing so well. There's definitely a place for Peter Stoykewych in our top six now. Ian Young was a little bit the odd man out last year. But I think he's working very hard and that people are going to like him when they see him play on a regular basis.”  

Between the pipes, Colorado College simply will be looking for more consistency out of the chute. After a 4-0 start in 2011-12, Howe finished 5-8-1 in net with a 3.48 goals-against average and .882 saves percentage. In the end, it turned out to be a frustrating year for the workhorse who backstopped 35 victories for CC the previous two seasons combined.

Thorimbert, on the other hand, overcame some early struggles, caught fire in mid-December and wound up leading all WCHA goaltenders with a .735 winning percentage (12-4-1) and .928 saves ratio in league play. He earned third-team All-WCHA accolades and returns this fall with a two-year record of 18-12-2 (.594), as well as a career GAA of 2.42.          

“Joe's a competitor,” Owens said of Howe. “He just battles and competes. I know he'll come back and want to put together a really good senior year...Obviously, Josh (Thorimbert) is that younger guy who made a pretty good statement the second half of the year. I was really happy with what Courtney (Lockwood) contributed to the program, too, as our third goaltender – a guy who worked extremely hard in practice and somebody with whom we became comfortable.”

TIGER BITES: Captains' practices begin the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 10, and continue for the next two weeks at Honnen Ice Rink on the Colorado College campus. First session at the World Arena is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 24. The Tigers won't begin skating with coaches on the ice until Saturday, Oct. 6, the day before playing host to the University of British Columbia in their season-opening exhibition contest. They face off official NCAA action the following weekend with a two-game series at the CSWA against Clarkson University.