I am curious to see who the top 5 will be. I do not have a good handle on it at all. Even with Staats I don't see Syracuse being preseason top 5, but I very well could be wrong. I think they are in the 9-11 range. Top five might be Notre Dame, Duke, Cornell, Loyola, UVA? I might be too ACC centric but those teams really don't lose a lot. Penn State returns a bunch. Tierney is still coaching Denver. Yale losses a bunch but has a great recruiting class. Feels like a lot of teams have a lot of good arguments. I hope I am wrong but I see Syracuse as a quarterfinal team next year, with or without Staats.
Cornell should definitely be in there, ND is interesting as they do bring back Gleason, Garnsey and Costabile so they have a nice core there. That said they do lose Milikin, Brendan Collins, Byrne, Sexton (big loss), Travisano their faceoff guy, and Wynne their crease finisher. ND's bigger issue is that they lose just about everyone after next season including Schantz , Wynne, Gleason, Crance, Phillips, etc. Hard to know what to make of ND going into next year after their offense struggled so badly at time this past season.
Duke brings back a lot but they lose Guterding which is massive as he was clearly the #1 option and best offensive option by far. I am sure they have 5+ UA's coming in but you can't replace a guy like that. Fowler (Goalie), Conley, Cerrone, and a few defenders also depart. I could see them being a top 5 team though in a pre-season ranking.
Agree about Loyola they bring back a lot as well including Spencer. but they do lose their goalie as well as Drapeau and Begley. I think there a top 5 squad and like ND this might be a year to get it done as they get crushed by grad losses following the season including Spencer.
Yale loses to much in my mind to be a top 5 team but I can see the argument. Hopkins brings back some interesting and I think most of if not all of their close defense. Losing Tinney and Stanwick are big losses though, plus midfield was decimated with grad losses and they have gigantic questions marks at the X and in goal.
Maryland will be good again but they take another big blow to graduation, the last two years they have lost a ton. Losing Kelly and Rotanz plus several D pieces is a lot to overcome after losing the entire starting attack last year.
UVA like us has a lot of ?. Can the D keep improving, what does Conrad look like injury wise, does a high end offensive guy bolt via transfer?
Like you I see SU around 6-9 though I would learn more toward 6 then 9. Staats would make a world of difference for this team, put him on this team and the offense is immediately light years better.