When the final interview wrapped up last Wednesday, the decision-makers in Hockey East felt like they had their man.
The seven-month process to find a successor to Commissioner Joe Bertagna came to a close Monday with the official announcement that Steve Metcalf would take over as the fifth Hockey East commissioner after the Frozen Four concludes in April. Boston University athletics director Drew Marrochello, who heads the Hockey East’s executive committee on the men’s side, said it was important for the league to go through the extensive search process in conjunction with Parker Executive Search.
The firm screened all of the roughly 60 candidates who expressed interest in the position and passed along 40 to the conference for further vetting. Eleven met over the course of two days in late January with a small subcommittee that included a head coach from both the men’s and women’s conference. The three to five finalists were interviewed again last Wednesday with representatives from 11 of the 12 Hockey East schools – one school’s representative had a family emergency that precluded them from making the interview.
From the process, Metcalf emerged as both the familiar choice and the one who best articulated a plan for the future of the league.
“He was the one who capitalized on his knowledge, but also talked about where we are knowledgeably and where we could go strategically,” Marrochello said. “When you sat in a room and heard some of the things that he talked about – and he talked about a wide array of topics – they were realistic that we can achieve as a league. When you match that with the fact that we did have experience knowing him and working with him, I’m not going to shy away from that there is a comfort zone. I know some people want to get out of the comfort zone at times, and Steve will appropriately get us out of our comfort zone and move us forward.”
Metcalf is no stranger to Hockey East, having worked extensively with the league on New Hampshire’s behalf over the last two decades at the school. He said those relationships will be very helpful when he begins his new post in mid-April once the college hockey season concludes. His first major duty as commissioner will be to lead the league’s annual meetings in Naples, Florida, as part of the larger American Hockey Coaches Association convention from April 22-25.
He acknowledged that there are plenty of issues the conference must tackle in the near future, including overtime rules, a more fair scheduling procedure and the playoff structure. Metcalf said he’s in favor of having fewer ties and finding solutions to equalizing the overtime procedure across college hockey in an offseason in which the rulebook can be tweaked. He said it’s too early for the league to judge the success or failure of the current eight-team playoff structure and move back to a system in which all 11 teams make the conference tournament.
However, Metcalf said all of those conversations are easier because of his pre-existing contacts and connections within the conference that give him a leg up to start his new position.
“I have the advantage of having so many good relationships within the league, otherwise I would be saying that is one of my top priorities,” Metcalf said. “That’s something I certainly have a head start on. We’re going to have time when we’re all together in Naples, it’s convenient for me and the league that right now we’re toward the end of the season so everything will be fresh then we’ll roll right into our annual meeting. We’ll be together so we can talk about the ideas of best practices and how we can all get better as a league and as institutions. So (I) need to take advantage of that time together.”
Metcalf said he fell in love with collegiate hockey in his first two years at New Hampshire when the men’s and women’s programs had tremendous success. In 1998, his first year with the school, the women’s hockey team won the American Women’s College Hockey Alliance national championship and Brandy Fisher was named the national player of the year. The following year, the Wildcats were the national runners-up on the men’s side and Jason Krog won the Hobey Baker Award.
He said the chance to lead a conference he has grown to love was an opportunity he could not pass up.
“Hockey East is obviously a fabulous hockey conference with a very rich history of success in every metric you could use to measure success,” Metcalf said. “I’m obviously familiar with the league and hockey is a sport that we all love, so the opportunity to take the next step in my career but also to get involved with something that I love and something I can make a difference and help move the conference forward. The combination of all of those made the opportunity, it became more attractive to me the deeper I got into the process.”