University of North Dakota men’s hockey coach Dave Hakstol said he had a terribly difficult time filling out his ballot for Western Collegiate Hockey Association preseason coaches poll.

“Every time I got to No. 7 and No. 8, I continually wrote down a team and said, ‘There’s no way in heck this is a seventh- or eighth-place team,’ Then I’d start all over again,” Hakstol said during the WCHA’s annual media teleconference with the coaches Tuesday morning.

This seems to be a recurring theme in college hockey’s best conference.

Every year, it seems, the coaches say the same things: The league is so tough. It’s so hard to predict. On any given night ... etc., etc.

You gotta stay healthy, they cry. You gotta have good goaltending. You gotta be playing well at the right time.

You gotta score timely goals. You gotta score on the power play. You gotta stay out of the penalty box.

“The WCHA is going to be very, very good,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “Six teams made the NCAA tournament last year, and a seventh (Minnesota State) just missed.”

In the end, the coaches almost all agreed that Colorado College should be the class of the conference this season. After all, the Tigers are the defending regular-season champion and return last year’s player of the year and rookie of the year in goaltender Richard Bachman, as well as one of the league’s top scorers in senior forward Chad Rau.

Members of the media that cover the WCHA also picked Colorado College first.

In fact, despite the theory that you could throw darts at a board or pull names out of a hat and still come just as close as anyone to predicting what the standings will look like next March, the media’s poll was exactly the same as the coaches’ list. That included locking Minnesota and Wisconsin into a tie for fourth and putting Minnesota State seventh.

“I like where we’re at, but I also like everybody else in the league,” Mavericks coach Troy Jutting said. “(The WCHA is) not as top-end heavy, as far as individual players go, but, top to bottom, we’re as strong as ever.”

Jutting added that he doesn’t put a lot of stock in the preseason rankings. After all, he reminded everyone on the call, the coaches picked the Mavericks to take ninth last season, and they finished in a tie for fourth.

Still, last season’s coach of the year said, “Getting picked seventh, when you’re in the WCHA is not a big slap in the face.”

Most of the WCHA teams will be in action this weekend, playing nonconfernece or exhibition games. The Mavericks will host Bemidji State Friday and Saturday.

A week later, eight of the league’s 10 teams will open conference play (the Mavericks will host North Dakota that weekend).