While I'm not sure whether if Oates had stayed another year if he would have
won the award, I certainly think another year or so of Brian Leetch at BC
would have secured him the prize. Or maybe Janney, if he'd come back. We
could certainly imagine a number of potential Hobeys who went pro, but
this may beg the question. How long was Ed Belfour at ND? (Some of this
situation has to do with expectatations: a hard look at first round draft picks
also reveals discrepancies.) I do think that Neal Broten was/is the
closed thing to a Hobey and NHL star.
 
Regarding Lane MacDonald: he did play in Europe for a year, for the
Lugano club, and did reasonably well, as I recall. Again, the migraine
condition was a factor, but I think the relatively less physical European
style made things a little better. Then he was assistant coach at Harvard
for the '91 season, Tommasoni's first as head coach. It was hard to tell
how he did, although exciting to see him behind the bench. Then he went
for the '92 Olympics, but the migraines did him in, and then on to broadcast
glory. He used to have to miss the occasional game during his college career
due to the extremity of the migraines, although the condition wasn't
really made public fact until after his senior year (although rumours
abounded). I agree that he was never interested in the NHL, though I recall
Hartford (who ended up owning his rights) being pretty upset when he opted not
to go. He and Fusco were brilliant, as someone pointed out, but the
Bourbeau-Young-MacDonald line of '87 and '89 was potentially even better.
Frankly, of the Hobey winners I've seen, he was always one of my favorites to
succeed in the NHL (I haven't decided on Kariya, and really didn't watch
enough of his games to have any real opinion). Someone mentioned that he set
up others, made others look better, well yes, but he was also the best goal
scorer I've seen at Harvard: he holds the career record, but moreover he
used to seem to score at will -- hyperbolic yes, but when he got going...he
had Fusco setting him up the first two years and Bourbeau the second two, but
he could really score!