The NCHC should start fresh
There is nothing saying that the current officials in the WCHA and soon-to-be-defunct CCHA wouldn't want to be in the NCHC... especially the CCHA officials as they would undoubtedly be out of work otherwise. However, I think the NCHC did something wise: They hired outside the established officiating infrastructure. Though Novak has experience with college hockey, he hasn't been mired in the beaurocacy that bogs down the WCHA and whatnot that hiring someone like Greg Shepherd or Steve Piotrowski does. The Big 10 hired Steve Piotrowski to run their officiating. Despite mixed reviews lately (which I believe those negative reviews were erroneous thanks to the WCHA's dire ideal of what makes a good officiating system), Piotrwoski will be a great leader in that field but...I believe Novak will be able to see what the entire officiating "world" really is like and hire accordingly.
Therefore, the NCHC can pick and choose and there is no obligation otherwise.
The Silver Lining of the Transferring Official
What if the NCHC does hire the buffoons in black and white that call themselves WCHA on ice officials? Well, they may not entirely be buffoons, they may merely be products of the King Buffoon himself: King Idiot Greg Shepherd.
Here's a case in point: I remember when Jon Campion came to the WCHA. I watched him call a game at the REA and said to myself "This guy gets it." He called it pretty evenly and when he did call a penalty, it was clearly a penalty. He was as consistent as you can reasonably expect from an on-ice official (especially since at that time there was only 1 official and 2 ARs). But as he spent more and more time around the beaurocracy and "Old Boy's Network" Greg Shepherd set up in the WCHA (with the blessing of Bruce McLeod), he started to "buy in" to Shepherd's system and his "game" deteriorated gradually until it reached the cliff: That fateful night at the REA where Campion went awkwardly into the boards and tore his ACL. When he returned he was a half step slow and his judgment became skewed such that it was hard to differentiate Campion from Anderson and Randy Schmidt (now fired thanks to his idiocy being caught on tape and garnering almost national attention).
So, the official may not be all that bad, just a warped cog in a defective machine.
So what do I think the NCHC should do (in summation)?
Hire the right guys. Do not give excessive weight to pre-existing college hockey experience but do not turn them away. The NCHC should mold itself more in the fashion of the NHL and USA hockey while embedding the NCAA mandate. They should endeavour to uphold all NCAA crackdowns consistently and equally throughout the season regardless of whether or not it is a problem specific to the NCHC or otherwise. Likewise, they should endevour to NOT be the reason behind a crackdown (such as the Don Adam Rule otherwise known as the mandatory major for CFB). In the end, we do not want to become complacent like the WCHA as that has been the undoing to quite a few NCAA Regional trips by WCHA teams as of late.
I am curous though: Do American officials officiate in foreign leagues such as the Finnish Elite League or the Swedish Elite League or even the KHL? If so, would it be feasible to try to attract those American officials back to the States?
I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir or whatnot but I'd love to know what you'd like to see in the running of the NCHC officiating corps.
