Celebrini and U.S. NTDP Trio Add Extra Buzz to BC-BU Rivalry

With Macklin Celebrini, the projected No. 1 NHL draft pick in 2024, at Boston University and the former NTDP trio of Ryan Leonard, Will Smith and Gabriel Perreault at Boston College, the Green Line Rivalry should be a must-watch hockey experience this season.

Just a three-mile stretch of Commonwealth Avenue contains one of the most heated rivalries in sports. On a road lined with historic school buildings, ornate brownstones and, yes, a handful of Dunkin' Donuts, more than 105 years’ worth of hockey players have marched across Boston with the intent of proving their school is the best hockey team in the city.

The names to play in the Boston University-Boston College “Green Line” rivalry – named after a Boston trolley line – speak for themselves. For BU, there are legends such as Tony Amonte, Mike Eruzione and Mike Grier. For BC, the sublime talents of Brian Leetch, Johnny Gaudreau and Chris Kreider once brought crowds to their feet.

That list is about to grow. Fresh off a Frozen Four berth and with star defenseman Lane Hutson on their blueline, the BU Terriers are adding projected 2024 No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini to the fold.

On the other side, the BC Eagles recruited the entire top line of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program – Ryan Leonard, Will Smith and Gabriel Perreault.

That trio set NTDP records for scoring last season. They’ll also be joined by goaltender Jacob Fowler, who backstopped USHL Youngstown to a Clark Cup championship last season and is a high-end goaltending prospect for the Montreal Canadiens.

Celebrini and the ‘NTDP Three’ are all good entry points for fans to watch one of college hockey’s most historic rivalries. After all, next year’s NHL basement will be a sweepstake for Celebrini’s services (might I coin the phrase “Sell-for-Brini”) and the trio of Leonard, Smith and Perreault are also blue chips for their respective NHL draft teams. All three were first-round picks in the 2023 NHL draft, selected by Washington, San Jose and the New York Rangers, respectively.

But with the passions of entire fan bases hinged on the outcome of BU-BC rivalry matchups – including games at Boston’s famed Beanpot Tournament featuring other rivals Harvard and Northeastern – these games are for more than just prospect watching. They’re a showcase of what that talent can do when impassioned by rivalry.

The teams will play a home-and-home on Jan. 26 and 27, 2024, before squaring off in the 71st annual Beanpot semifinal on Feb. 5. With Hockey East rankings on the line, as well as NCAA Tournament implications that late in the season, all three meetings are bound to be grudge matches appropriate for the history and talent within the rivalry.

The 2024 series also represents the best look yet at what each program could look like in the future. That’s because these teams’ freshman classes are the first recruited for each program’s coach.

Last off-season, Jay Pandolfo became BU’s head coach after the school cut ties with former coach Albie O’Connell. BC also hired Greg Brown to replace the legendary Jerry York, who retired after the 2021-22 season. Both coaches started last season, but they were largely at the whims of the programs they inherited from their predecessors. With a year of implementing their own systems and recruiting players to fit those tendencies, each coach will ice a team that’s more closely aligned with their visions. They’ve also gained players they believe can align with their systems, especially versatile scorers such as Celebrini and Smith.

That all matters because for a rivalry that’s defined by its stars such as Gaudreau, Amonte and – presumably – Celebrini and Smith & Co. in the future, the Battle of Commonwealth Avenue is also defined by those coaches behind the bench.

Because of the relatively short college careers of players, coaches serve as the most long-lasting pillars of a rivalry. During the 1940s, the rivalry centered between Terriers coach Harry Cleverly and Eagles bench boss John ‘Snooks’ Kelley. In that era, both teams helped set a tone for the budding collegiate hockey scene as it became more and more organized.

In later decades, the coaching honors went to names such as Jack Parker at BU for 40 seasons and Jerry York at BC for 28. Both alumni of their respective programs, they coached and recruited the names who etched themselves in the record books of this rivalry. Now, Pandolfo and Brown are following in their footsteps.

The talent on their rosters this season should make for exciting hockey, as do the raised expectations that talent infuses. BU hasn’t won a national title since 2009, and April’s Frozen Four was its first flirtation with a trophy since it lost to Providence in the 2015 national championship. With Celebrini on a roster that came so close last season, the clamor for the Terriers to make a tournament run should be high — especially considering Celebrini’s potential to be a one-and-done player.

On the BC side, the Eagles haven’t hoisted NCAA hockey’s ultimate prize since beating Michigan in the 2012 final. Since then, BC made the Frozen Four in 2014 and 2016 but lost in the national semifinal. Its own new additions of Leonard, Perreault, Smith and even Fowler should help the Eagles make a push toward reasserting their status as an NCAA powerhouse.

Now marks a new era, one where Pandolfo and Brown will attempt to reassert both schools’ places in the upper echelon of college hockey. And with stars such as Celebrini, Smith and more at their respective disposals, they’re likely to bring the fireworks when each team squares off.

Because as much as those prospects seem positioned to make some noise at the NHL level, they’ve still got games to win with their respective colleges. Knowing the Green Line Rivalry, their head-to-head matchups will be must-watch affairs.