The following article is an opinion piece:
Over the past week, the Big Ten Conference announced the winners of its annual awards, voted on by a panel of coaches and the media. The idea of a "snub" isn't new — many fans often only see a limited number of games. This causes some inaccuracies and teams that finish higher in the standings tend to be nominated more frequently for individual awards.
It explains why Kenneth Walker III wasn’t invited to New York City for the 2021 Heisman ceremony, or perhaps it’s why Michigan star forward — and likely the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming NHL Draft — Adam Fantilli wasn’t nominated for Big Ten Player of the Year despite leading the entire NCAA in points with 60. The winner of the award, Matthew Knies, was tied for 17th with 40 on the season. In other words, 17 other players had as many or more points as him. When congratulating Knies on social media, the Big Ten said Knies led the league in game-winning goals, which does not make someone a "Player of the Year" in my personal opinion.
Knies might not even be the best player on his team or on his line.
Many Michigan State fans thought Dylan St. Cyr ought to have been nominated for Goaltender of the Year. While St. Cyr had a tremendous season, Notre Dame's Ryan Bischel and Minnesota's Justen Close did, too. Arguing whether Ohio State's Jakub Dobes should be substituted for St. Cyr is just a simple debate on bias.
There is one huge issue with this year's conference awards, however, and it revolves around which coach the conference awarded as Coach of the Year.
Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale, Ohio State's Steve Rohlik and Minnesota's Bob Motzko were nominated as finalists. Motzko won, the Big Ten announced this week.
I would simply argue that Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato was deserving to be a finalist over Rohlik, but Motzko being given the award over Nightingale is ignorance at best.
Nightingale was hired in April of last year after Michigan State finished an abysmal season, even for its own recent history. The Spartans lost 15 of the final 16 games during the 2021-2022 season, culminating in a suffered sweep to rival Michigan in which U-M looked like its opponents were Triple-A juniors.
Over the course of Nightingale’s first season, Michigan State went 18-18-2, finished fifth in its conference and won its first postseason round game since 2013 — all without diving into the transfer portal too deeply like some other teams did to improve the roster.
The only real big piece of recruiting that Nightingale did for the impending season was to get Karsen Dorwart from Sioux Falls because the team needed depth at center. Its biggest transfer additions were goaltender Dylan St. Cyr and left wing Miroslav Mucha. Otherwise, all improvements made were at the root of the roster.
Twins Cole and Christian Krygier stayed through for Nightingale’s first year and both were instrumental in the team’s success with Cole adding his offensive firepower. Nicolas Müller and Jagger Joshua had never been offensive horses before, but finished among team leaders. Daniel Russell and Tiernan Shoudy were both recruited by Danton Cole, yet stayed on and had impressive freshman seasons.
Additionally, PuckPreps ranked Michigan State’s 2006 (the year the players were born) recruiting class as being top-five in college hockey within Nightingale’s first season as head coach.
Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko is clearly one of the best college hockey head coaches. During his time at Minnesota, Motzko has won the conference’s Coach of the Year award three times now: 2020, 2022 and 2023. During Motzko’s first two seasons at Minnesota, Ohio State head coach Steve Rohlik won the award. Wisconsin’s Tony Granato won it in 2021.
Since the Big Ten’s inception as a hockey conference in 2013-2014, the winners of the awards are typically on major programs. Granato won the award in 2016-2017 in an attempt to rebuild the Badgers’ program. In many ways, what Granato did that season is much like what Nightingale did over the course of the last year.
Granato took a Wisconsin hockey team that had only won a total of 12 games in its final two seasons under previous coach Mike Eaves, the same year it won the inaugural Big Ten Tournament. In Granato’s first year as coach, Wisconsin lost the Big Ten Tournament championship game in double overtime.
While Nightingale did not lead Michigan State to a Big Ten championship game during his first season, he did provide a much-needed change in program culture. The Michigan State hockey program has taken a huge leap in comparison to where it was just a year ago. MSU is on the map and is building a potential dynasty in East Lansing.
It’s not just fans that are excited either — players have often referred to this past season as “fun,” which was a stark contrast compared to previous years. In one example, senior forward Nicolas Müller said each week is exciting. Players have said that the practices are “harder” than the games themselves, which gives each player better preparation for what to expect on the ice.
While Motzko built a strong team of future NHL talent, Nightingale took a roster arguably lacking in top-end talent and made it able to compete above its weight class. Every ounce of what Nightingale did at Michigan State this season made him worthy of Coach of the Year. Now, give him the trophy.