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Factors such as the impact of recruits, defense and goaltending will have a direct result on the final standings in the first year of the WCHA, but let's take a look at each team's offensive productivity for returning players.
The following table ranks each in the WCHA team in terms of the percentage of offensive productivity returning. The ranking was determined by dividing the total points scored last season by the points scored by returning players. The same was done to determine the percentage of goal scoring of returning players.
Team | Pct. Points Returning | Pct. Goals Returning | '12-13 Off. Nat'l Rank | Leading Returning Scorer |
Bowling Green | 90.5% | 91.0% | 43 | Ryan Carpenter, Jr. (18-15--33) |
Alabama-Huntsville | 87.5% | 88.8% | 59 | Jeff Vanderlugt, Jr. (7-4--11) |
Minnesota State | 81.9% | 79.5% | 14 | Matt Leitner, Jr. (17-30--47) |
Michigan Tech | 79.4% | 81.3% | 24 | Alex Petan, So. (15-19--34) |
Ferris State | 73.1% | 62.5% | 36 | Garrett Thompson, Sr. (11-15--26) |
Northern Michigan | 70.0% | 76.7% | 47 | Reed Seckel, Jr. (13-12--25) |
Alaska-Anchorage | 67.4% | 61.2% | 58 | Blake Tatchell, So. (9-16--25) |
Alaska-Fairbanks | 63.5% | 57.9% | 37 | Cody Kunyk, Sr. (11-17--28) |
Lake Superior | 58.1% | 50.0% | 48 | Dan Radke, Sr. (5-16--21) |
Bemidji State | 50.3% | 47.3% | 56 | Danny Mattson, Jr. (4-15--19) |
Some of these statistics are skewed for various reasons. The newly revamped WCHA is made up of teams who played last season in the CCHA, WCHA and in Alabama-Huntsville's case as an independent.
On paper, it would appear that Minnesota State, Michigan Tech and Bowling Green have the best chance to succeed offensively in the WCHA this season.
Keep in mind the above chart just ranks teams purely by percentage of offensive production returning. This is not the prediction for where teams will finish as other factors contribute.
Bemidji State and Lake Superior lost the highest percentage of their team's offense from a season ago.
More from Western College Hockey Blog:
- NCHC Preview: Ranking the Offenses by Returning Players
- Atlantic Hockey: Ranking Teams by Percentage of Offense Returning
- ECAC Hockey: Ranking Teams By Returning Offensive Production
- Hockey East Preview: Ranking the Offenses by Returning Players
- Big 10 Hockey Preview: Ranking the Offenses by Returning Players
Jeff Cox is a hockey reporter for SBNation. Follow him on twitter @JeffCoxSBNation.