The Big Ten Hockey conference officially announced their future conference tournament format and sites yesterday. The XCel Energy Center in St. Paul will host the first and third Big Ten tournaments in 2014 and 2016, while Joe Louis Arena will host on alternate years in 2015 and 2017.

Format for the tournament will include all six teams, playing a single elimination format, with the top two seeds receiving byes on the first day of competition. I'm still not a fan of one-and-done netural(-ish) site games, particularly now, in the middle of the NHL's playoff season. But the format does provide a little protection to the idea of Big Ten teams costing themselves tournament bids by beating up on each other during the regular season, since it won't be all that hard for a bottom half team to secure an automatic bid.

Now that the Big Ten's plans are officially settled, attention turns to what the other two western conferences will do. There were rumors of the NCHC was looking at Target Center in Minneapolis. With the XCel Center seemingly open every other year, it looks like that may be a possibility for either the NCHC or WCHA as well

Mike Hastings weird public interview on Friday was apparently more impressive than any of the zero other candidates for Minnesota State's head coaching position, and on Saturday, Hastings was announced as the third head coach in the program's Division I history. Video of his (ostensibly second) introductory press conference is here.

Minnesota State president Richard Davenport's comments last week--"The candidates we have, you're just going to be blown away by. They are just outstanding." among others--look pretty strange, unless he's so confident in Hastings that he's already referring to him in the Royal We. Admittedly, it wasn't a very deep field to choose from. Neither of my two dream candidates really had any interest in coaching at the collegiate level.(For the record: Norfolk Admirals head coach Jon Cooper, and Malcolm Tucker. Not necessarily in that order.) There weren't really an up-and-coming USHL coaches-- something that I think would have been a good fit-- that were viable candidates. Mike Guentzel apparently wanted more money than a guy who has batted around the order without a hit on other head coaching positions merited.That really leaves only North Dakota assistant Cary Eades as a potential candidate, though his omission at least from the interview process seems puzzling.

But putting aside any qualms about the way the coaching search was handled, the end result seems a good one. There's no doubt that Mike Hastings has the qualifications, and has earned the opportunity to be a head coach at the Division I level. He should bring a renewed energy, and hopefully, a sense of toughness that has been lacking for Minnesota State in recent years. It's not the easiest job in college hockey, but I also think expectations will be set accordingly. Like Mel Pearson last year, any sort of positive turnaround should be considered a huge success. Maverick fans would be happy just to spend their weekends in February and March watching meaningful hockey games, rather than watching My So-Called Life re-runs on Hulu just to feel things, and then drinking until they no longer feel them, or slowly inoculating themselves against the malaria of the African jungle while listening to the Cloud Nothings' No Future, No Past on endless loop. (No? Just semi-fictionalized versions of me, then?) Hastings provides that hope, and that was the biggest thing MSU needed to get out of this coaching hire.

Much was made about Hastings' assumed title of 'heir apparent' to Dean Blais at Nebraska-Omaha, both before and after his hiring. Both are non-issues to me. If Hastings can have success as a head coach at the Division I level, that only enhances his chances of being Dean Blais' successor at Nebraska-Omaha, more so than staying at UNO in an assistant role. There is the risk that Hastings may not be at Mankato for the long-term, but that's a risk worth taking if he is able to get some positive momentum going for the program. If you offered Western Michigan a do-over, do you think they would not hire Jeff Blashill, knowing he would only be there for one year? As long as Hastings can get the program headed back in the right direction, and can get fans interested in the Minnesota State program again, his hiring will be a great choice, regardless of how long he is there.

Minnesota State is still in the process of finding their next head coach after reassigning Troy Jutting earlier this month.

Yesterday, they brought in Nebraska-Omaha assistant coach Mike Hastings for an interview with the media and the public.

A lot of the college hockey world was left scratching their heads at the public interview, though it's not without precedent. Alaska conducted similar interviews with the public when filling their head coaching vacancy in 2007, which yielded Doc DelCastillo(*shudder*), and in 2008, when they hired Dallas Ferguson(Hooray!). Frankly, it's probably not a terrible idea, given the importance of how a coach is perceived in such a small community, to let the general public feel at least somewhat involved in the process.

That said, MSU seemed to handle it in a pretty strange way. The email announcing Hastings' public interview hit my inbox at exactly 11:12am on Friday afternoon, which means everybody got just under five hours of notice for the interviews. Even stranger was MSU's refusal to say if there were any other candidates that would be going through this process, or how many other candidates there were.

Not announcing any other candidates seemed to leave people more confused about what went on yesterday than anything. Had Hastings already been given the job? Is the job his if he wants it? Is he the favorite because there's other candidates? It's tough to say. I would suspect that in the haste to get the coaching situation settled as soon as possible, MSU began this public interview process without having the full list of who would be interviewing completely nailed down. Hopefully some of those questions are answered next week.

TSN's Bob McKenzie reported this afternoon that the Pittsburgh Penguins reached a deal with Denver junior-to-be Beau Bennett. Bennett was a first round pick, 20th overall, of the Penguins in 2010.

Bennett played in just 10 games for the Pioneers this year after a nagging wrist injury required surgery, ending his season in early December. Prior to the surgery, Bennett had 13 points in those 10 games, giving him a career total of 38 points in 47 games.

Yep. What the totally SEO-friendly headline said. The NHL's final Central Scouting rankings came out today. The timing on this is always a little weird, because the upcoming World U18 championships renders this list obsolete pretty quickly, but it's always fascinating to see what NHL Central Scouting is thinking.

Here are the North American skater rankings, and you can follow links to the rest.

Three out of the four players connected to colleges have ties to Michigan in Jacob Trouba(9th), Phil DiGiuseppe(22nd), and Boo Nieves(27th). Minnesota recruit Brady Skjei, Wisconsin recruit Nic Kerdiles, and Boston College recruit Michael Matheson also cracked the top 30.Nebraska-Omaha recruit Anthony Stolarz is the top college-committed goalie at 4th. Jon Gillies, who recently decommitted from Northeastern and visited Notre Dame is 6th. 96 total players are either playing college hockey or committed to play college hockey.

The Ontario Hockey League held their Priority Selection on Saturday. Full results are here. As always, there were huge implications for college hockey in the draft.

Starting off, there were three American players to go in the first round of the draft: Blake Clarke (15th to Brampton), Brendan Perlini (16th to Barrie), and Aaron Haydon(20th to Niagara). Clarke seemed a given to head to the OHL, with no college commitment, and the USHL not exactly working out for him this year. Perlini is committed to Michigan State, and going in the first round really decreases the odds of him ever playing there. Aaron Haydon, we hardly knew ye. He's a big, physical defenseman, and going in the first round means it's virtually a lock he'll play there.

The second round had a bit of a surprise when Green Bay Gamblers leading scorer and UNO recruit Alex Broadhurst was selected by London. News came that Broadhurst has not yet qualified academically to play at UNO, so the OHL provides a nice back-up plan. Broadhurst said he is still considering attending UNO, and will make a decision once his season is over.

The fourth round of the draft is where action really started to pick up for American players. North Dakota saw both of their eligible recruits get taken. Brendan Lemieux went to Barrie, while Nick Schmaltz was drafted by Windsor, as expected. Dropping to the fourth round seems like a decent sign for Lemieux, because he probably would have gone higher if a deal was already worked out, but it's not like he dropped into the later rounds where it seems like a shot in the dark. With Schmaltz, where he was drafted didn't mean much. Everyone knew Windsor was the only team with any shot at signing him, and they'll have to do a lot of work over the summer to convince him and his brother to sign.

Darby Llewellyn, the younger brother of former Michigan defenseman Tristin Llewellyn, was also drafted in the fourth round by Kitchener. Tristin was drafted by Saginaw back in the day, but at one point, was convinced he was going to play for Kitchener, prior to committing to Michigan. Tristin ended up choosing Michigan over the OHL based on strong input from his family, but after Tristin's disappointing experience at Michigan, it looks like his brother may go the other way.

The Plymouth Whalers took a couple kids that have already committed to the NTDP, as they usually, and did so relatively early, but both have interesting connections to the Whale. High-scoring forward Sonny Milano, drafted by Plymouth in the 4th round, plays for the Cleveland Barons Midget Minor team. The assistant coach of that team is Don Harkins(the head coach is his younger brother Brett), director of scouting for the Plymouth Whalers. Harkins already had success in recruiting Milano from Long Island to a stacked Barons team. Perhaps they're gambling they can convince him to come to Plymouth too. Meanwhile, in the fifth round, Plymouth selected Carolina Jr. Hurricanes defenseman Josh Wesley. Both the Carolina Hurricanes and Plymouth Whalers are owned by Peter Karmanos, so there has always been a close relationship between the two organizations.

Prior to the draft I had pinpointed this as an important day for Michigan State. They came out of the day scarred, but far from catastrophe. Perlini going in the first round is a bad sign. Heading into the draft, Josh Jacobs seemed like a lock for the first round, and eventually signing in the OHL, so to see him fall to the fourth round is potentially a good sign. He was drafted by Sarnia. He was drafted by Sarnia, who generally isn't a big spender, but really tried to buy a championship team this year, a strategy which resulted in a karmic string of injuries and a first playoff exit. They may try to double down on that gamble next year, in which case Jacobs could be a key piece, but it looks like less than a given that he'll sign.

Off Michigan State's other two recruits, Marcel Godbout wasn't picked until the 9th round, which appears pretty safe. MacKenzie MacEachern went completely undrafted. That's a positive sign in terms of him making to MSU, but not necessarily a great sign for his NHL Draft stock. If he was likely to be picked in the NHL Draft, I think a team would have drafted him, hoping that the NHL team that drafted him didn't want him playing in the USHL next year, and persuading him to head to the OHL. Providence recruit Mark Jankowski is in a similar position, and likely to be drafted in the NHL this summer, and was taken in the 7th round by Saginaw today.

Eighth round pick Jake Evans of Mississauga is a Canadian player that reportedly dropped because he was interested in pursuing the NCAA route.

For the most part, every other college-committed player went late enough in the draft that there are no immediate concerns about them signing in the OHL.

For the third time in the last five years, Boston College has won the national championship. Given the randomness of a one-and-done tournament, that's about as dominating and as close to a dynasty as I think we're going to see for some time. The Eagles have had a near monopoly on talent in the northeastern United States, but even with those advantages, winning like they have is easier said than done. Jerry York isn't just one of the best coaches in college hockey. He's also one of the sport's classiest people, and his team has adopted those same qualities.

Meanwhile, Ferris State's incredible run came to an end. They gave the Eagles a a good game, easily BC's toughest of the tournament,, but ultimately, Boston College had too much talent for them. There's no shame in that since every other team in college hockey is in the same position. The Bulldogs' run was a refreshing reminder that as much as some schools feel there isn't room for small schools like Ferris State in this sport, and try to backroom deal them out of existence, the game is still played on the ice, and there is still a place for the great small programs in this sport.

The day off between the Frozen Four semifinals and final game is the time for college hockey's awards.

The Hobey Baker Award went to Minnesota-Duluth's Jack Connolly, who became the fifth player from UMD to win the award. It's a fitting ending to a storybook career for the hometown kid that wasn't recruited by any other schools before committing to the Bulldogs, that included 197 career points, a WCHA playoff title, and the school's first ever national title.

Meanwhile, the NCAA's first and second team All-Americans were announced. Here they are:

All-America First Team

West
G Taylor Nelson, SR, Ferris State
D Torey Krug, JR, Michigan State
D Justin Schultz, JR, Wisconsin
F Jack Connolly, SR, Minnesota-Duluth
F Jaden Schwartz, SO, Colorado College
F Reilly Smith, JR, Miami

East
G Troy Grosenick, SO, Union
D Danny Biega, JR, Harvard
D Brian Dumoulin, JR, Boston College
F Spencer Abbott, SR, Maine
F Alex Killorn, SR, Harvard
F Austin Smith, SR, Colgate

All-America Second Team

West
G Kent Patterson, SR, Minnesota
D Chad Billins, SR, Ferris State
D Dan DeKeyser, SO, Western Michigan
F Nick Bjugstad, SO, Minnesota
F J.T. Brown, SO, Minnesota-Duluth
F Jason Zucker, SO, Denver

East
G Joe Cannata, SR, Merrimack
D Mat Bodie, SO, Union
D Tim Kirby, SR, U.S. Air Force
F Barry Almeida, SR, Boston College
F Brian O'Neill, SR, Yale
F Jeremy Welsh, JR, Union