Addition by subtraction.

It’s a comforting platitude, especially to a coach whose roster was ravaged by transfers, defections and graduations.

Maine head coach Ted Woodward knew he would need to replace graduating starting forward Mike Allison in 2013-14. He couldn’t, however, have anticipated the mass exodus of players that would leave Maine in the spring.

Alasdair Fraser, Justin Edwards and Jon Mesghna each announced they would leave Woodward’s program within weeks of the team’s heartbreaking America East quarterfinals loss to Albany.

Outside of Stony Brook’s Jameel Warney, Fraser was the league’s most formidable post presence. Edwards rivaled Binghamton’s Jordan Reed for best athlete and narrowly edged the then-freshman for the scoring title, while Mesghna shot 38.3 percent from long range.

You can’t simply replace that, especially with Allison’s graduation exacerbating the dire situation.

But that’s the tall task staring Woodward in the face as the new college basketball season tips off. He says he’ll be fine, that he likes his team. Rival coaches say Maine should be competitive, that addition by subtraction could actually come to fruition up in Orono.

Don’t buy the crap.

Coaches pay heed to their own adaptation of life’s Golden Rule. They won’t criticize or speak negatively about one of their peers on the record because they don’t want to deal with the return jabs and other potentially damaging repercussions, like lighting a fire under an opponent.

The only time you’ll hear a coach lay into one of his or her contemporaries is on a controversial topic — think about the Rick Pitino-Jim Boeheim feud over realignment.

There’s no apparent controversy at Maine — though such a spate of notable transfers and defections at least raises a red flag — so the America East coaches whom Pipe Dream asked about Maine’s uphill battle invariably said Woodward’s squad would be just fine.

These same coaches picked Maine to finish eighth out of nine teams in the preseason poll, in front of UMass Lowell but behind New Hampshire, Binghamton and UMBC, three teams also coping with roster turnover.

There’s obviously a reason.

The Black Bears’ two key returning players are Xavier Pollard and Zarko Valjarevic — a questionable decision maker and a shooter. Woodward signed a few well-respected recruits, most notably Parade All-American Garet Beal. But Maine undoubtedly faces a challenging transition period.

The Black Bears will field a thin frontcourt a year after boasting one of the most formidable in the America East. They don’t have an established playmaker like Edwards, who averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.9 steals per game last year. Take Mesghna out of the picture, and Valjarevic returns as Maine’s top 3-point threat at 33.8 percent.

Maybe some of the newcomers can at least plug the leak. We’ll see.

Addition by subtraction is a comforting phrase. But if you root for Maine, don’t rely on it.