Nobody really saw it coming, but now that hockey head coach Ron Mason has officially announced he’s vacating his post of 23 years, coaches across the country are expected to start printing out their résumés and sending them to East Lansing.

Current MSU assistants Tom Newton and Dave McAuliffe have clearly stated they want the job, but those outside the Spartan hockey program face a stickier situation if they are interested.

Rumors have Denver head coach George Gwozdecky, an MSU assistant from 1984-89, in the pole position for the job, but his No. 1 Pioneers are focusing on their national title run.

So even if Gwozdecky is interested in coming back to East Lansing as head coach, he can’t express those desires until after the Frozen Four in April.

“I’m not interested in anything right now,” Gwozdecky said Monday afternoon. “We’re ranked No. 1 in the country and we’re focused on achieving our goals.

“Every year there are rumors about coaches wanting this position or that position, but there’s no place I’d rather be right now than here.”

If MSU really wants Gwozdecky as its next coach, it might have to beat out a push by soon-to-be-coachless Wisconsin. The Badgers’ Jeff Sauer is retiring at the end of the year and Wisconsin is Gwozdecky’s alma mater.

Still, Gwozdecky had only good things to say about the Spartan hockey program.

“In my mind, it might be the top job in college hockey,” Gwozdecky said. “It’s certainly one of those three or four elite programs in the country.

“I’m sure there will be many, many coaches from around college hockey and from outside of college hockey that will be rumored to be throwing their hats into the ring for that job.”

Mason, who announced Monday he will become the university’s next athletics director, still has more than two months left in his tenure as MSU coach. The fourth-ranked Spartans are barreling down the stretch run toward the postseason and Mason said he won’t conduct a search or name a replacement until after the season.

That means there won’t be much action on the coach-replacement front, but don’t expect the gossip to stop.

In addition to known candidates Newton and McAuliffe, Gwozdecky tops the requisite list churned out by the rumor mill for every coaching vacancy. Could it be Kelly Miller or Newell Brown, a pair of former MSU players and current NHL assistants? Or how about former Lake Superior State coach Jeff Jackson, an MSU graduate?

No one really knows for sure, but Mason said he knows what kind of coach he’s looking for.

“Anytime you’re looking for a coach, you want integrity,” Mason said. “And you definitely want someone that’s been successful, and I’ll leave it at that.”

Regardless of who the public thinks should get the job, Newton said he’s confident Mason will make the decision based on what’s best for the program.

“If there’s a better person to select a hockey coach in this country, I don’t know who he is,” Newton said. “Every time we go through a lineup to play a game, our theory is ‘What gives us the best chance to win?’

“That’s what (Mason is) going to do, not only with this decision, but with every decision he makes as athletics director.”