The answer to the above question is very subjective.  I think one is prone to
pick the era in which he/she has watched the most games. In any case, I would
like to stick my $.02 worth in.  While I agree with Mike Machnik that the
1987 year was quite good, I would submit that the period 1977-1979 was
probably the best. Since I have been watching college hockey for (I hate to
admit it) almost 30 years, I think I have a decent perspective in assessing
different eras. The period I am talking about came to my mind since today is
the first reunion of the 1980 Olympic team, taking place at Matthews Arena,
Boston.  In looking over the roster of that team, it was exclusively made up
of former college players, most of whom had finished their careers in 1978 or
1979 (Eruzione finished in 1977).  In addition, this was a "college all star
team" for US residents only.  Canadian born US college players were not
included.  A little research reveals that some Canadians who played in that
era included Mike Eaves (Wisconsin), Rick Meagher (BU), Bob Gould (UNH), Phil
Sykes (UND), Lance Nethery (Cornell) and Dave Taylor (Clarkson),  In
addition, there were several Americans who were pretty good but either chose
not play or were cut from the team such as Ralph Cox (UNH), Craig Homola
(Vermont), Joe Mullen (BC) and Jack Hughes (Harvard). (NOTE: At the time many
of us thought that the Olympic team selections exposed a WCHA/Minnesota
bias).  If the criteria for assessing their talent is their level of success
in the NHL, I would say that this group certainly measures up to any group
from any era.  And remember, this is in a period when the NHL saw the
American college game as inferior and discouraged their draft choices from
playing in it.  One thing that caught my eye in viewing tapes of the US-USSR
game in 1980 was the size of the players.  There was clearly not an emphasis
on weight training back then as there is now.  I'd be curious to get a
response from other College Hockey Dark Agers.  How 'bout it Arthur, could
Herb Wakabayashi, Ken Dryden and Tim Sheehy measure up?