2017-18 Section 7AAAA Preview

This is the 26th preview in my 2017-2018 season preview series.  The class AAAA previews move on to the often maligned section 7AAAA.  For a list of all the season previews and how they are generated, click here.

Section 7AAAA (8 teams)
Defending Champion: Andover

Tournament Schedule:
Quarterfinals: Wednesday, March 7th
Semifinals: Saturday, March 10th at Chisago Lakes
Finals: Thursday, March 15th at Chisago Lakes

Predicted Seeding

1. Forest Lake
2. St. Francis
3. Blaine
4. Andover
5. Cambridge-Isanti
6. Duluth East
7. Anoka
8. Coon Rapids

No changes to the section for this 2 year cycle.  This section was so up in the air last year that 7 seed Andover made the run to state.  Forest Lake with the addition of Manny Jincgo along with returning John Schrader is my top seed.  Behind them its a jumbled mess with lots of head to head matchups to determine placement.  Lots of top players lost from these teams.  Despite a late coaching change, I'll take St. Francis with the strong forward combo of Blake Kulsrud and Wyatt Schroeder to be 2nd.  Blaine gets the nod at 3 as the best remaining team from the Northwest Suburban.  Andover also gets a schedule bump here.  I'm going to pick an improvement from Cambridge-Isanti to go with a drop off from Duluth East.  The Greyhounds have to replace a ton including star big Cody Carlson.  Anoka continues to rebuild and Coon Rapids drops back after a strong year last year.

Sleeper: Cambridge-Isanti.  Despite losing their top scorer, the Bluejackets have plenty of experience coming back and they play a unique system.  Add in shooter like Henry Abraham and in this section they should be able to compete with everybody.

Section Winner: Forest Lake. This is more by default than anything.  But the Rangers have enough firepower that they should withstand the competition.