A while ago, when the B1G formed a hockey conference, the remnants of the old CCHA & WCHA reorganized into the National College Hockey Conference and a remainder WCHA. The NCHC had most of the premiere programs, like Denver and NoDak. The WCHA got a lot of the smaller Minnesota and Michigan schools. I was surprised Western ended up in the NCHC as I think Northern is WCHA, but St Cloud and UN-Omaha are NCHC too. Mankato (Minn St) is one of the best WCHA.
Frozen 4 had 2 Hockey East traditional powers as well as 1st timers from the B1G (Penn St) and Western from the NCHC.
Off year for the ECAC, which is the Ivies plus mostly smallish NY schools that have always been D1 and Quinnipiac.