Jaden Schwartz, who will make his Colorado College debut in Saturday's season-opening exhibition game against the University of Lethbridge, has been named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Preseason Rookie of the Year, according to separate polls of the league's head coaches and media.

Schwartz was a consensus choice in the annual coaches poll, organized by the Grand Forks Herald. In the 94X Media Poll conducted by a radio station in Duluth, Minn., he received 10 of 27 votes cast by a panel of broadcasters and sportswriters covering all 12 teams in the WCHA. The University of North Dakota's Derek Forbert was second with six votes.

The coaches picked Minnesota Duluth forward Jack Connolly as Preseason Player of the Year while the media tabbed North Dakota senior defenseman Chay Genoway as recipient of that honor.

CC, which plays host to Lethbridge at 7:07 p.m. (MT) Saturday and the United States Under-18 Team in another exhibition at 6:07 p.m. Sunday, was picked to finish sixth and seventh, respectively, in the WCHA standings by the two groups. The Tigers' roster includes eight sophomores and eight freshmen, including Schwartz, who was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the NHL draft this past summer.

North Dakota was a near unanimous choice in both polls to win the league's regular-season title in a season featuring the addition of Bemidji State and Nebraska Omaha as new members in 2010-11.   

Ken Landau, who handles the play-by-play of Colorado College's radio broadcasts on 103.9 RXP, and Joe Paisley, the team's beat writer for The Gazette, were on the voting panel for the media poll.

Both polls were released today.