BC, BU, Denver and Michigan State are the # 1 seeds, in that order. BU will get shipped west, since UMass hosts one of the eastern based regionals and as a 4 seed, cannot play their conference mates BC or BU in the opening round.
This is one of the more "blue-blood" tournaments in recent memory. 13 of the 16 teams have won an NCAA title, including all of the top-10 seeds. All 7 teams with at least 5 titles are in the field -- UMich, Denver, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minn, BC, and BU. Michigan State returns to the tournament for the first time in a dozen years looking for their 4th title, and joining them in search of their 4th is Michigan Tech.
In all, 59 of the 75 NCAA hockey championships are represented in the field.
I don't have a guess as to where the teams will all end up, but UMass will be in Springfield and Nebraska-Omaha will be in Sioux Falls as they are the host schools. BC will be in Providence. The field also cannot be 100% serpentine because to do so would pit Michigan against Minnesota and North Dakota against UNO, and by rule teams cannot face conference mates in the 1st round.
For the first time since the dawn of "Lefty's Rink" Notre Dame will be missing a second consecutive tournament. But even so I still will be tuning in. The hockey tourney is almost always a great show. Last year it was the Big Ten show, especially in the opening round. The four teams from our conference won their 4 games by the combined score of 36-4. Quinnipiac turned out to be the Big Ten killer though, beating OSU in the 2nd round, Michigan in the semi-final, and finally besting Minnesota in OT in the championship game. They are back to defend their title, likely to face another Big Ten team -- Wisconsin -- in the opening round.
If I was picking a bracket, I might be picking all 4 #1 seeds to end up in St. Paul for the FF, with BC (ugh) winning it all. Since 2006 a 4 seed has managed a 1st round upset in all but one tournament (2022) but I see all of the 1s prevailing this time around too. BC has been the top team in the PWR basically all season, they are the only team with 30 wins this season (31-5-1) and are 3-1 against the #2 team in the PWR, BU.