Bertagna enters last season

Hockey East announced Monday that 2019-20 will be Joe Bertagna’s final season as the league’s commissioner.

Bertagna, who is entering his 23rd season leading Hockey East, said on a conference call yesterday the choice to step away was not his own.

“This is not a retirement,” Bertagna said in a release Monday. “They say when one door closes, another door opens. I look forward to starting my final year with the conference and seeing what doors open up for me in the future.”

He followed up Tuesday on the conference call: “My contract was up at the end of the (2019-20 season) and I was looking to extend it a little bit. At the time I started that conversation, these directors had decided that they were not going to renew the contract.”

Bertagna is the longestserving league commissioner in NCAA ice hockey history, and served as the head of the ECAC for 15 years. He also recently re-upped his deal with the American Hockey Coaches Association, a position he’s held since 1991.

Bertagna began his career in hockey as a goaltender at Arlington High, graduating in 1969 before playing for Harvard. He later served as women’s coach at Harvard as well as a goaltending coach for the Bruins and the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team. He said on his conference call he anticipates continuing to work on projects such as writing and teaching once the season ends.

Bertagna’s watch over the conference has included the agreement with TD Garden since 1999 to host the Hockey East championship, events at Fenway Park, and in Belfast, Ireland.

A difference in philosophies between himself and the league’s 11 athletic directors appears to be at least partially to blame for the separation.

“I had a director remind me recently that we’re in the entertainment business,” Bertagna said. “I thought there was a distinction that we were in the education business, but we don’t want to fool ourselves that we’re selling $30 tickets in these beautifully renovated buildings with the beautiful Jumbotrons. We do have to be entertaining.”

Bertagna’s final season running Hockey East will begin in October.

“I have had a good run with Hockey East and am grateful for the opportunities the schools have provided me for more than two decades,” Bertagna said. “Adding my time with the ECAC to the Hockey East years, I will have contributed to 38 seasons of college hockey, and am very proud of what has been accomplished on my watch.”