BOSTON — On the ice, Hockey East’s future continues to look strong.
Off the ice, however, the conference is preparing itself for a shift in leadership after the league announced in July that this would be commissioner Joe Bertagna’s final season. As Bertagna takes his deserved victory tour this season, the athletics directors from the 11 member schools will begin meeting to determine who will lead the conference after this year.
UMass athletics director Ryan Bamford said the process will hopefully produce a candidate able to match Bertagna’s 23 seasons of longevity.
“It becomes a decision of moving forward in a way that’s going to set this league up for the next 20 years,” Bamford said in an interview last month. “Just someone who’s going to drive us, who’s really going to push us to the limit and get us thinking outside the box. Honestly, I’d like someone who can maybe make us a little uncomfortable about what the next steps are, about challenging us about the commitment each of the 11 institutions is making to hockey.”
At the league’s media day Monday in Boston, the coaches were all effusive of Bertagna’s tenure and what he has meant for the conference as a whole. And many of the coaches said they would like to see someone with similar intangibles to Bertagna take over as the new commissioner next year.
“We’d certainly like to get a hockey person who understands the dynamics of college hockey, but also understands the marketing that’s involved in taking our league and selling more tickets,” said Boston College coach Jerry York, who started coaching the Eagles three years longer than Bertagna has been commissioner. “We’re looking for a lot of what Joe’s qualities are in a new commissioner.”
There are bound to be disagreements between what the coaches are looking for in the new commissioner and the qualities the athletics directors are seeking in the candidate. What matters more to coaches are practical things that can affects results like scheduling, but many do have an appreciation for the other off-ice aspects of the position like marketing and finding sponsors.
Northeastern’s Jim Madigan said it’s vital that there is open communication between the coaches and ADs throughout the process to make sure that whoever the league hires satisfies both groups.
“We probably have some different criteria than the directors have and it’s important the two groups — obviously led by the athletic directors because it’s their decision at the end of the day — that the criterias merge so we get the best candidate to lead this great league into the future,” Madigan said. “For me, it’s somebody has a broad base knowledge of hockey obviously, but has strong marketing and branding skills, sponsorships, the ability to raise some money and to be a leader. That’s the most important to have someone who is a leader within the sport who can tackle issues at the leaguewide and national level.”
The idea that the new commissioner needs to help Hockey East retain its spot as one of the preeminent college hockey conferences was a common theme among coaches. The conference hasn’t won a national championship since Providence in 2015 and UMass’ appearance last year was the league’s first since the Friars beat conference rival Boston University in the final.
Yet the league still has placed at least three schools in the 16-team NCAA Tournament in the past 11 years. That is something the new commissioner will need to maintain and improve upon, the coaches agree.
“Hopefully (it’s someone who can) continue to push us to be the best league in the country,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said. “We have a special product where we have big-time hockey, but we’re all relatively close to one another which opens a lot of great avenues for us.”
Bamford said he hopes the new commissioner can even improve upon Hockey East’s run of success by bettering its standing within the national market moving forward.
“Our goal is to make sure we’re positioning our league in a way that celebrates how successful we’ve been and how successful we’re going to be,” Bamford said. “Somebody who can strategically position us in a spot nationally that makes us the best hockey conference — which we think we are — and makes it known and clearly identifiable to all others that Hockey East is the best. That’s through a number of ways. It’s through recognizing greater financial revenue success, it’s through visibility in television and digital streaming agreements, it’s in the way we highlight the successes of our teams and our student-athletes.”