Season after season, Hockey East coaches talk about the level of parity in the league and the high-level talent of the players within it — all of which contribute to its consistent position among the best leagues in Division 1 men’s college hockey.
The league has churned out hundreds of NHL players over its 40-year history, including 40 who made the playoffs this season.
However, this past season was something special from a pure talent perspective and should set Hockey East up for continued success.
Seven former first-round draft picks — five of whom were freshmen — helped to make must-watch moments from October through April. The number is likely to grow, as Hobey Baker Award-winning Boston University star Macklin Celebrini is the overwhelming favorite to be selected as the No. 1 overall pick in June.
The league-wide talent surge started on Commonwealth Avenue.
“Back when I was coaching at UConn, you saw the Big Ten start to pull ahead a little bit talent-wise with getting the high-end guys, so it was really important to kind of re-establish the Hockey East brand, saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got those players here, too,’” BU associate head coach Joe Pereira (West Haven, Conn.) said. “Part of that was to re-establish BU and BC to an elite level where guys like Celebrini, (Boston College’s Will) Smith (Lexington, Mass.), (Gabe) Perreault, (Ryan) Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) want to go again.”
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The league’s crop of first-round draft picks this season also included another Eagle in sophomore Cutter Gauthier, Celebrini’s BU classmate Tom Willander, Maine freshman Bradly Nadeau, and UConn sophomore Matthew Wood.
The Eagles and Terriers garnered much of the spotlight while producing five of the nation’s top six scorers, all within the aforementioned group. Smith accumulated 71 points — the most by any Division 1 player since Michigan’s Kyle Connor in 2015-16 — on the way to a Hockey East championship and BC’s first Frozen Four berth since 2016. Celebrini was just the fourth freshman since 2000 to record at least 30 goals and 30 assists in a season.
From the perspective of Pereira and his fellow coaches and recruiters around the league, there was one trait that separated this group of standouts from the rest of the field.
“They just make plays that nobody else makes. They make plays that are just on a different level,” Pereira said. “It’s nothing against other players, but their level is just special and talks about how especially good they are. … A couple of my buddies that scout for pro teams would say (some games this past season were) like watching the American (Hockey) League. It was special in that way, but now the key is to keep doing it and keep finding those players.”
Between the eye-popping statistics and the level of attention on the league’s star players to raucous crowds packing into all 11 league buildings, it made for a perfect storm of a season without comparison in recent history, at the very least.
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“I don’t remember a year where one league, maybe, had the amount of really high-end, skill players throughout the rosters, especially with several teams,” Providence College assistant coach Joel Beal said. “Looking ahead to the draft this summer and next year as well, I think you’ll see a lot of names called in the first or early second round. It’s a credit to all the coaches that continue to recruit the top talent to this great league.”
As Beal alluded, more high-level talent is on the way .
Eight future Hockey East players were rostered on the recent silver medal-winning U.S. team at the Under-18 Men’s World Championship, including BU-bound Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.) and BC commit James Hagens. The latter broke a 13-year-old record for the most points in a single tournament with 22. Two other contributors to the U.S. team will join Beal with the Friars in forward Trevor Connelly and goaltender Jack Parsons.
Even though Smith is off to San Jose and the future is uncertain for Celebrini and Leonard, there still will be plenty of exciting talent to watch throughout the region.
What has led to this trend of high-level talent joining Hockey East and the college hockey route in general? Really, it’s nothing new. The college game is all about development.
“I think the best players in the country and the world are looking more into the college game, so it’s great for everybody,” BC associate head coach Mike Ayers (Hingham, Mass.) said. “I think there’s more time to develop. There’s fewer games, so (that means) more opportunities to work out and develop the physical side, and of course, the importance of education. … We’ve got to make sure these kids are developing on and off the ice.”
While some touted prospects would be looking toward what’s to come, the best of Hockey East was doing anything but throughout this season.
“There wasn’t a foot out the door,” Ayers said. “You get that feeling with some kids at times, and those are the kids that you hope there’s enough strength in the room to pull them in the right direction. We didn’t have to do that with these kids. They bought in to what we were doing. They loved it here, they enjoyed it, and you saw that with their play on the ice.”
For Pereira, the competitiveness of Celebrini on a day-to-day basis stood out and can help to provide a great example for players aspiring to the college level — and beyond.
“He’s the most competitive kid I’ve ever coached,” Pereira said. “It didn’t matter if we were playing small games at a Monday practice, he just wants to win at everything that he does. He takes care of every detail. But he’s also just a great kid. He’s going to have a long, long career, and if the (San Jose) Sharks do end up drafting him, I truly believe he and Will (Smith) are going to do something special together and re-establish a market that is hungry for success.”
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As for the future, what could be better for development than playing with and against the best?
That’s what you got in Hockey East every night. Don’t expect it to change any time soon.
For those like Beal who coach penalty killers, every night this past season was the ultimate challenge. But that’s what a player should want.
“I think players are competitive and want to come into the league to play against other top players,” Beal said. “Just recruiting defensemen for example, our message is that if you want to come in and prove yourself as a player that can play at the next level, you need to play against players that are going to be playing at the next level, right? … If teams are at our games and see you’re defending (these aforementioned high-end players), that’s going to get you noticed even if you’re maybe not as highly touted a prospect.”
