In just his second year at the helm of the Boston College men’s hockey program, head coach Greg Brown has won the Bob Kullen Award for Hockey East Coach of the Year. Brown has coached BC all the way to the top of national pairwise standings, establishing a record so strong that the Eagles will be the #1 overall seed in the 2024 NCAA tournament no matter what happens in the conference playoffs across the country.
Boston College is led by some young all-star players in Cutter Gauthier, Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault, Jacob Fowler, and others, but it has been Brown’s leadership that has driven them to success. We’ve seen a lot of teams with “one-and-done” type stars flame out and struggle against hard-nosed veteran teams, but BC has blown by everybody this season. Whether it be defending national champions Quinnipiac or archrival and fellow powerhouse Boston University, Brown has led the Eagles against a huge variety of teams and play-styles with an inexperienced roster and has come out the other side with possibly the best Hockey East team since the early 1990s. It’s been a masterclass in utilizing a high level of talent in the best way possible.
Brown beat out the Jay Pandolfo (BU), Mike Souza (UNH), and Ben Barr (Maine) for the award. It’s been a strong year for the conference, and it required this huge success for Greg Brown to earn this award, especially seeing as Maine coach Ben Barr oversaw a huge turnaround for the Black Bears from a middling Hockey East team last year to an NCAA tournament team this year.